Cork 1000 Shakes Night Navigation Trial - 7-8 Jan 06

Posted: January 12, 2006 9:10 AM

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On last Saturday night into Sunday morning Twenty-Seven crews tackled the “1000 Shakes” navigation trial, which was organised by Cork Motor Club with Ger Gowen as clerk of the Course. Abley assisted by a hard working team and enough marshals who gave of their time that you could have run a stage rally.

The HQ for the event was in Whitechurch located 7 miles north of Cork City and weather conditions were dry but fog and frost were present.

Seeded at number 1 were Andy Mackarel & Liam Higgins (Monaghan), At 2 were Michael (Bones) o Connor & Paul (Felix) Phelan, and it was between these two crews the battle for overall honours was fought out, but they were pressed hard by Ger o Connell & Denis o Donovan and Brendan Fahy & Kieran Daly who finished in third spot and maybe could have been higher only for a brief fuel starvation problem which cost them six minutes. The top finishers in the Novice class were Eamon McKenna & Andrew Grennan and the beginners were led home by the teenage crew of Owen Murphy & Darragh Hayes, Owen replacing Diarmuid ‘Ould Stock’ o Donovan in the driving seat.

The number one seeds were one mark down at timepoint 2, which was the end of the first of two speed regulation sections. At timepoint 6 the crews entered the town land of Glanhaboy, and the fact plot + bash and trace navigation was used on this section meant crews were under pressure and Bones & Felix dropped their first mark here into timepoint 9, with many other crews missing timepoints the major losers here were local man Pat Gowen & Jim Oliver, and Fintan McCormack & Daniel McKenna who both missed timepoint 11. By timepoint 12 all of the 25 crews had picked up penalties with Mackarel, o Connor, Fahy and o Connell tied for the lead.

The farm lane leading to timepoint 18 was a tricky section but was enjoyed by all, but the sting in the tail before petrol halt, was still to come at “Nickeys Boreen” where a combination of a dotted road, deep muck & grass and a number of gates proved difficult.

At Petrol Halt the number 1 seeded crew just held the lead from the O Connor/Phelan pairing with Fahy/Daly in 3rd. Just about from O Connell/Donovan, McCormack/ McKenna were also in a battle royal with another semi-expert crew, that of the Shinnors brothers Alan & George, while the novices were tightly bunched, but Murphy/Hayes were in a field of their own in the beginners class.

The second half saw no change until timepoint 35, the leaders dropping two marks and the battle for the win seemed to be over but then news came through that O Connor/Phelan dropped a huge eight marks and down to 4th with Fahy/Daly taking over second and o Connell/Donovan third, then the leading semi-experts had mechanical trouble when a fuel line got pulled off and they stopped to repair it and dropped six minutes and the chance of a win was gone, that meant after the tough & tricky section between timepoint 34 & 39 the top four were changed around again Mackarel/Higgins leading, O Connell/ Donovan now second Bones/Felix were back in third and Fahy/ Daly back to Fourth, McKenna/ Grennan starting to pull clear of the fellow Monaghan pairings of the Tynan brothers and McGuinan/Cassidy.

The Murphy/Hayes crew were well clear in the beginner’s class with Tobin/ Browne second and enjoying the spin, not like O Neill/Beamish who were going well but the driver seemed very agitated at times. With just one remaining competitive timepoint before the speed regulation section to return to the H.Q everything seemed settled at the top but it wasn’t to be, Macharel/Higgins had a clean run but O Connell/ Donovan punctured and dropped to fourth on 15 penalties the same as Fahy/Daly who never gave up after their bad luck earlier and finished third on the tiebreaker, O Connor/Phelan moved up to second on fourteen penalties.

A text message received by the C.O.C on Sunday night from a competitor who travelled over 180 miles to the event said it all, it read… “Great event, well organised, great terrain and thought put into the route, with an outstanding number of marshals and well worth the long journey” A competitive night ran by understanding competitors.

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Mackarel knocks the bones out of 1000 Shakes
Cork Motor Club's first event of 2006, the 1000 Shakes Navigation Trial took place on January 7/8. Based at the Whitechurch Community Hall, in North Cork the event was part of the two main navigation championships, being round 5 of Motorsport Ireland National series and round 4 of P.J.O'hea (Opel) Munster Championship. The trial took place over a route of approximately 95 miles and attracted an entry of 27 crews, 25 of which made it to the finish.

Bones O'Connor and Paul Phelan have won this event on numerous occasions and were firm favourites for victory again. But an unusual error saw the Subaru pair wrong slot at a time point near Glenville. COC Ger Gowen of course is from the Glenville area, and obviously knows the area a lot better than most.

The resultant time loss which saw their penalties rise to 14, gave the National Navigation Championship leaders Andy Mackarel and Liam Higgins who had been neck and neck with them all night, the advantage they sought and secured for them what they termed a hard earned victory incurring 9 penalties on the event in their Vauxhall Vectra,

Third place was also hotly contested with two crews finishing on 16 penalties. Ger O'Connell and Denis O'Donovan in their Toyota Celica recovered after a wrong slot at time point 5 early in the event, to finish on equal penalties to top Semi-Experts Brendan Fahy and Kieran Daly who were having an excellent drive in their Vauxhall Astra. The tie breaker gave the semi experts the place.

The Top Novice crew also had a tremendous result when 60-year-old Eamonn McKenna and 18-year-old Andrew Grennan, brought their Volvo 240 to an excellent fifth place overall on 22 penalties.

Cork Motor Club's top up and coming driver Owen Murphy with Daire Hayes navigating took the Beginners class when they finished ninth overall in their Rover 213. In all, 25 of the 27 crews finished the 100-mile event

1 Andy Mackarel/Liam Higgins (Vectra) 9 marks,
2 Michael OConnor/Paul Phelan (Impreza) 14m,
3 Brendan Fahy/Kieran Daly (Astra) 16m,
4 Ger OConnell/Denis ODonovan (Celica) 16m,
5 Eamonn McKenna/Andrew Grennan (Volvo 240) 22m,
6 Martin McGuigan/Richard Cassidy (Corolla) 47m,
7 Fintan McGorman/Daniel McKenna (Nova) 53m,
8 Jason OMahony/Gary Hall (Carina) 67m,
9 Owen Murphy/Daire Hayes (Rover 216) 93m,
10 Martin Tynan/Ciaran Tynan (Vectra) 102m,
11 Brendan OSullivan/Kevin Flynn (Peugeot 205) 119m,
12 Adrian Tobin/Lorraine Browne (Carina) 163m.

Semi-experts:
1 Brendan Fahy/Kieran Daly
2 Fintan McGorman/Daniel McKenna
3 Alan Shinnors/George Shinnors (Astra) 166m.

Novices:
1 Eamonn McKenna/Andrew Grennan
2 Martin McGuigan/Richard Cassidy
3 Martin Tynan/Ciaran Tynan.

Beginners:
1 Owen Murphy/Daire Hayes
2 Adrian Tobin/Lorraine Browne
3 Conor ONeill/Andrew Beamish (Corsa) 164m.

• Results in Excel Format

Cork Motor Club

• 2005-06 National Navigation Championship
• 2005-06 Munster Navigation Championship

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PRE EVENT NEWS

• Regulations on line

• Download Regs

Cork Motor Club

• 2005-06 National Navigation Championship
• 2005-06 Munster Navigation Championship