Christopher McMahon and Damien Treanor secured the overall victory on last Saturday nights Navigation Trial, based out of Aughnamullen GAA. The event was the final round of the 2023/24 club Navigation Championship and the overall club Traders Championship. Christopher and Damien were the only crew to complete the 85 mile event without dropping a single penalty. The trial began at 10pm due to a number of crews also doing the Clare forestry rally earlier in the day. The first five timepoints all took place between Shantonagh and Corduff with both timepoints 4 and 5 requiring the use of farm lanes in Bocks Lower and Bocks Middle. The event then crossed the R180 towards Lisdoonan, Broomfield and the south side of the R181 for Timepoints 6 to 17 including Via 1, Via 2 and Control B. Farm lanes in Drumlurg, Annahaia, Rathmore and Lisnamuck were used for the location of Tp’s 6 and 7, Via 1 and Tp10. A farm yard in Drumherriff North, the location of TP11 was where the first supplementary route instruction was handed out for the location of Tp’s 12 and 13. The supplementary route instruction was in the form of a straight line herringbone tulip diagram, which brought crews through farm and private lanes in Lackafin and Kednagullion. The next supplementary route instruction was received at TP16. This route instruction was in the form of a route card containing the locations of all previous check point locations, including the unknown TP17. The trick here was that the approach and departure were swapped around, quarter way down the page. Any crew failing to spot this would be met with a wrong approach and possibly a departure at TP17. Eighteen out of the thirty four starters failed to find TP17 or were met with a wrong approach penalty. From here the event crossed the R181 for the second half of the event, with the remaining checkpoints located between Lough Egish, the R183 at Ballybay, Creeve, Latton and Shantonagh. Tp18 was located on a farm lane in Tossy before heading to TP19 in Drumhawn where a further supplementary route instruction was received for to find the location of TP 20. A box tulip with cumulative distance brought crews to the location of TP20 via farm lanes in the townland of Tonyglassan. The Intermediate time check section took place between Tp23 in Agheralane and Tp24 in Lackan. At Tp24, the final supplementary route instruction was handed out for to reveal the direction of travel and location on TP’s 25 and 26. Competitors had to be very accurate on their Tripmeter here as they were passing very close by TP26 on their way to TP25. The slightest error would end up with arriving at TP26 first and having to skip TP25 and go directly to TP27. TP27 was located at Crossduff Lough. This was the final Time point of the night as next up was the penultimate Control (CC) in Drumillard which was accessed via a long farm lane through Knocktornagh and Aghmakerr. At Control C it was just a short trip back up the road to the final Control, back in Aughnamullen GAA.
When the results were totted up Christopher and Damien were the only crew who did the entire event faultlessly. So achieved a rare zero penalty victory. It was a very close event as one crew finished on 1 penalty, three on 2 and two on 4 penalties. In the classes, Eoghan Farrell/Mickey McNelis finished 1st in the Beginner class, with Ben Mohan/Damien Hagan finishing 2nd and Caolain McCaffrey/Sean McCaffrey finishing 3rd. In the Novice class it was Molly Maguire/Ciaran Duffy 1st, Aaron and Ciaran McGorman 2nd and Gareth Kelly/Shane Laverty 3rd. In the Semi-Expert class it was, Patrick Corcoran/Mickey Conlon who finished 1st, Danny McKenna/Francie McElvaney finished 2nd and Anthony McDonald/Sean McConnell finished 3rd. The Expert class was a tight affair as no tiebreaker could separate who finished 2nd, as both Conor Mohan/Michael Carbin and Conor Boylan/Derek Mackarel were down 2 penalties picked up at the exact same place and both cars had the same engine CC’s. Evin Hughes/Pakie Duffy finished 1st in class, down just one penalty for being one minute late to TP12. David McCrudden/Martin Tynan would have possibly been on for a clean sheet also, but their car developed a mechanical issue on the way to Tp11, this issue caused them to pick up two penalties for late arrival. As their penalties were picked up at TP11 rather than at TP12 as had happened both Conor Mohan/Michael Carbin and Conor Boylan/Derek Mackarel they lost out on 2nd in class because of the furthest cleanest tiebreak rule. On a positive note for David, he finished 5th OA which was enough to finish 1st OA in the prestigious club Traders Championship for the second year in a row. Derek and Conor became the 2024 Gary Nesbitt club Navigation Trial champions by 2.3 points over Tynan/McCrudden, showing just how competitive the championship is.
Top 10 Overall
1st Christopher McMahon/Damien Treanor (Subaru Legacy) 0 marks
2nd Evin Hughes/Pakie Duffy (Subaru Impreza) 1m,
3rd Conor Boylan/Derek Mackarel (Subaru Impreza) 2m,
4th Conor Mohan/Mickey Carbin (Subaru Legacy) 2m,
5th David McCrudden/Martin Tynan (Subaru Impreza) 2m,
6th Patrick Corcoran/Mickey Conlon (Subaru Impreza) 4m,
7th Molly Maguire/Ciaran Duffy (Subaru Impreza) 4m,
8th Danny McKenna/Francie McElvaney (Subaru Impreza) 12m,
9th Anthony McDonald/Sean McConnell (Subaru Impreza)13m,
10th Eoghán Farrell/Mickey McNelis (Subaru Impreza)19m,
After the event the winning crew thanked the Marshalls, residents and land owners for all their help and support. Peter Farrell and Conor Maguire who organised the event also thanked all the land owners and residents for their support.
