Co.Cavan Motor Club Autocross @ Latton - 26 Jan 03

Posted: January 27, 2003 5:32 PM

The initial pace was set by the class 1 Vauxhall Nova of Gerard Greene on a time of 2:19.38, which could have been faster had Gerard not crossed the finish line on two wheels. As the first run continued the class 2 Nova of Adrian Farrelly came to the fore with a time of 2:15.20, which would lead the event for most of the first run. The Peugeot 205 of Cyril McCullough with a time of 2:11.67 recorded the fastest time of the first run and indeed the event. Former Champion Ronnie Coulter recorded a time of 2:15.24 to take third place on the first run.

The level of grip was reduced on the second run as rubber and mud covered the driving line, and the recorded times reflected this. Almost all of the cars struggled to record times inside the 2:20 mark, only Cyril McCullough achieved this with a time of 2:17.52. All the drivers reported the surface to be treacherous on this run, and many went off the track or had nearly moments.

The track dried slightly during the lunch break, but the early times of the third run were again slower as the afternoon sunshine was slow to take effect. The top three consolidated their respective positions with Cyril McCullough again fastest on 2:15.11, Ronnie Coulter narrowly pipped Adrian Farrelly to second on 2:22.33, and Adrian managed to hold of Joseph Smith to take third overall with a time of 2:23.42.

In class 1, the hard charging Gerard Greene took the class with Gabriel Greene second by 1 second, and Micheal Conlon was third a further 2 seconds back. Fionann McNiff finished best of the first time competitors on the day, 7th in class and 46th overall.

The tightest finish of the day occurred in class 2 with Adrian Farrelly winning by less than half a second from Joseph Smith. David Kerr built on knowledge gained last year to take an excellent third place on the day.

Ollie McCormick was the class 3 winner by a comfortable margin of 3.2 seconds from the high revving Escort of John Mckettrick with Martin Browne third in his Honda Civic.

The class 4 championship battle of 2002 seems set to continue into 2003, with the Big Three of Ollie O Reilly, Arthur Kierans and Garreth McCullough providing most of the action on the day. It was Ollie however that produced the measured performance on the day to win the class by 6 seconds. Arthur Kierans took second in class by 2.5 seconds from Garreth McCullough.

In Class 5 Ronnie Coulter took the class by 4 seconds from Paul Burns, Paul was sharing the Peugeot 205 of event winner Cyril McCullough. Barry McGleenon survived a high-speed trip into the scenery at the mid-track jump to take third in class on the day.

1 Cyril McCullagh (Peugeot 205) 4m 26.78s,
2 Ronnie Coulter (Astra) 4m 36.67s,
3 Adrian Farrelly (Nova) 4m 36.79s,
4 Joseph Smith (Escort) 4m 36.83s,
5 David Kerr (Peugeot 205) 4m 37.29s,
6 Roy Coulter (Nova) 4m 38.03s.

Class winners: Gabriel Greene (Nova) 4m 41.96s, Adrian Farrelly, Ollie
McCormack (Nova) 4m 41.30s, Ollie O'Reilly (Escort) 4m 44.05s, Ronnie
Coulter.

The next round of the 2003 V-MAC Silo’s Autocross Championship takes place on February 15th.