Evin Hughes and Packie Duffy emerged victorious on the penultimate round of the Motorsport Ireland National Navigation Championship on Saturday night last. The multiple navigation trial, national champions finished the 85-mile event having acquired four penalties. They finished two better off than 2nd placed Conor Boylan/Derek Mackarel, who in turn were two marks better off than 3rd placed and national championship leaders Ryan Treanor/Shane Dalton.The competitive part of the event began at 21:01, when the first of the 35 starters left the headquarters of MacSeains Pub and Golf in Cornafean. Checkpoint 1, was located in the townland of Leam, with a left departure and taking a five-mile journey to arrive at Tp2 in Losset. Navigators had to be extremely careful from here on, as all of Tp3, 4, 5 and Via1 were all within a kilometre and a half squared of each other. Competitors had to take a farm lane in Drumrockady to avoid passing by Tp4 on the way to Tp3, cross the public road and into another farm lane in Cloncose. Halfway through this lane it was a right turn for to reach Tp3 on the public road in Shancor. After leaving Tp3, it was a left turn before reaching V1, back in the townland of Drumrockady. After departing the Via competitors merged in along with other competitors only heading to Tp3. This time the competitors had to remain on the public road to arrive at Tp4. After departing Tp4, it was a left turn, and back into the same lane used for Tp3, only this time it was keeping left halfway through the lane for to arrive in the farm and to Tp5 at the end of the road, just 160m away from where Tp4 was located. The first Time Recovery Section (TRS) of the night took place between Tp7 and 8 beside Castlepoles Reservoir.
Tp9, beside a farm in Forthill was where the events first supplementary Route Instruction was received for to show competitors the route to both of Tp10 and Competitors received a muddled up twenty-three section, single page ‘box tulip’ diagram with the notice that all distances were intermediate, meaning navigators had to reset their trip meter at every junction along the route. The diagram brought crews to a farm in Gurteen. Along the lane on the exit of the farm, competitors had to take a right turn (west) off the main lane and into a field lane. It was vital that they took this turn as Tp10 lay only 100m away and Tp11 was located at the public road only 230m straight ahead. Competitors had to depart Tp10 north, loop around and continue straight onward on the second pass. If the right turn had not been taken on the first pass, competitors would have arrived at Tp11 instead and have to skip Tp10 altogether.
After departing Tp11 to the left (east) it was into another very long farm lane in Knockaghy for to arrive at Tp12. Two more farm lanes were used for the approach to Tp13 and Tp14 which was located at the x roads beside Corratober National School. The events second Supplementary Route Instruction was received here for the location of Tp15. The route instruction here, was in the form of a complete route card, only with the approach and departure directions swapped around half way down the sheet, and the location of Tp15 in one place and the approach and
departure directions in another. Tp15 was located beside Enaghan Lough and it had to be approached and departed from using numerous farm lanes, with one lane in particular being used on the approach and on the departure. Tp16 was located at the end of a very long farm lane, from the location of Tp15 to Woodland. Control B (CB) lay a short distance down the road so the events second TRS took place here. Tp17 was located on a farm lane just east of Arvagh. Tp18 was located three miles away in Brankill, before a 4.5-mile public road journey to Tp19 on the R201 in Kilbrackan.
The events third TRS took place between Tp21 and 22, and it was here that the nights Speed Regulatory Section (SRS) began. This events SRS was set at 26mph, 4mph lower than the standard SRS average speed of 30mph, leaving extra work for each team in trying to maintain the 26mph average speed over the 9.5 miles. One mark is acquired for every 9s too fast or too slow in arriving to the secret check. The events next Supplementary Route Instruction was received at Tp25 at Bellahillan Bridge. This instruction was a ‘Herringbone Tulip’ diagram, only this time in the shape of a car with intermediate distance between each junction. The tulip brought crews to Farnadolly Milk Barn via farm lanes for Tp26. At Tp26, another supplementary route instruction was received for to locate Tp27. Competitors received a two-page intermediate distance box tulip diagram, in alphabetical order. Well A to N were in order, but ‘O’ was located between S and T, so it was vital that navigators noticed this trick for to have any hope of reaching Tp27. Tp27 was located in the townland of Rocks, a trip through a small quarry had to be used for the correct approach. Once at Tp27, a further route instruction was received for to show the way to Tp28. This time, the route instruction was in the form of a ‘Straight-Line Herringbone Tulip’ diagram with cumulative distance, between junctions. Tp28 was located at the end of a farm lane, just a mile over the road in Kevit Upper. There was a small sting in the tail for some navigators here as, they had received the location and departure of Tp29 back at HQ, but had not received the approach. Some navigators expected to receive the correct approach direction at Tp28, until they were told that they had received it earlier in the night at Tp14. This information caused a lot of crews to search frantically for this information, that had been more than likely discarded once the relevant information at the time was noted. After departing Tp29, it was a straight forward return to the HQ in MacSeains Pub and Golf in Cornafean.
Results were totted up, Evin Hughes and Pakie Duffy emerged victorious having acquired just four minutes of lateness throughout the event. The Monaghan Drumlin Navigation Trial, Clerks of the Course, Conor Boylan/Derek Mackarel finished just two minutes in arrears and took 2nd place. A third-place finish was enough for Ryan Treanor/Shane Dalton to have provisionally won the 2024/25 Motorsport Ireland National Navigation Championship with one round to spare. In the classes, Brian Harkin/Jack Brunton took 3 rd in the Beginner class, with Darren Lavery/Aaron McGorman taking 2 nd and Elijah and Abraham Dixon finishing 1 st in the ever-competitive class. Aidan Sweeney/Aidan McDevitt finished 3 rd in the Novice class, with Adam Jordan/Aaron Dixon finishing 2 nd and Gretchen and Martin Swinburne comfortably winning the class and taking 9 th overall. Michael Sheridan/Cathal McGlone finished 3 rd in the Semi-Expert class, with Stephen and Ray O’Neill taking 2 nd and Ciaran Coyle/Shane Laverty finishing 1 st in the class. Patrick Corcoran/Patsy McDonagh took 3 rd in the Expert class, Ryan Treanor/Shane Dalton took 2 nd and winning the Expert class and finishing 2nd overall was Conor Boylan/Derek Mackarel. After the awards were presented, Evin Hughes, thanked Sean and Anthony for organising a fantastic event, and all the residents, marshals and landowners for all their support over the previous weeks and helping the event the success that it was. Monaghan resident Oisín Sherlock, thought that when he crossed the border at the Leggykelly Inn that, that would be the end of Cavan for him for a while. Little did he know that when he got home at 02:15, that there would be a heifer calving too…
