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| Monaghan Stages Rally |
| RALLY NEWS No.7 - After SS9 Final Stage - Sunday @ 17:23:32 |
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Rally News No.7 Hillgrove Hotel Finish – Sunday 5.30pm
Unofficial Leaderboard After Stage Nine – Final Stage
1st (1) Niall Maguire/Enda Sherry (Impreza WRC) 1.22.12
2nd (3) Derek McGarrity/James McKee (Impreza WRC) 1.22.38
3rd (4) Melvyn Evans/Patrick Walsh (Impreza WRC) 1.23.10
4th (5) Gary McPhillips/Mark Tierney (Escort Mk2) 1.24.49
5th (8) Manus Kelly/Donal Barrett (Escort Mk2) 1.25.25
6th (11) John Cairns/James Cairns (Impreza) 1.26.36
7th (46) Sam Moffett / Domhnall Lennon (Lancer N) 1.27.26
98h (19) Danny MacBride / Ambrose Given (Lancer N) 1.27.26
9th (14) Seamus O’Connell/ Sean Magee (Escort Mk2) 1.27.31
10th (16) Brian Brogan/Damien McGettigan (Escort Mk2) 1.27.57
Niall Maguire and co driver Enda Sherry steered their Triton Impreza onto the finish ramp here at the Hillgrove Hotel to record an historic win on their local event. Niall as a driver marks up his sixth victory on the rally a new record while Enda Sherry becomes the first person to win the rally four years in a row as a co driver. Niall was almost lost for words at the final control, he drove a superbly controlled rally under major pressure from Derek McGarrity all afternoon and could only say “I can’t really believe this, they tell me it is six wins, hard to take in, but once again it was a brilliant Monaghan Rally, well run as usual, but for me this means so much and it keeps my championship on course”. Enda Sherry was equally chuffed and both driver and co driver were offered genuine congratulations from the other drivers. Derek McGarrity was just as happy to finish second and he joked “we are in Niall’s backyard, fair play to him, it was a great win and race, I probably needed a whole lot more rain to race Niall here, but boy it is good for the championship, keeps us all in with a shout”. Melvyn Evans rounded off the top three, the Welshman happy to consolidate his position over the final three stages as he felt he couldn’t push much harder in his Impreza.
Gary McPhillips once again takes the 2wd award and finished a brilliant fourth, Gary sorted out his misfire but then the Escort started jumping up and down through the gearbox over the final stages. Rodney Wilton was on course for fifth but he is reportedly crashed out in stage eight leaving Manus Kelly in a solid fifth.
Sam Moffett drove a brilliant final leg to win GpN today pipping Danny MacBride after a great battle all day. Sam Moffett has won the Dunlop drive of the day award and David Smyth has won the HAAS drive of the day award. Victor Hunter got class 13 after his day long battle with Raymond Conlon ended with Conlon out of the rally in a field on the final stage.
Finally for now many thanks to our sponsors today Niall Maguire, Moffett Wind Power and Damien Connolly – the Dentman. Once again Monaghan Motor Club have provided a fantastic days rallying and our congratulations go to Conor Maguire and his team on a superb effort and as usual special thanks to Cora Maguire for all her help. Thanks again to Dougie Hughes – the voice of Irish Motorsport and results man Angus Sealy.
Michael & Zoë Patterson
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