Once again the crowds and cars descended on Ballyvaugen for the 3rd and 4th round of the Connaught Competition Engine Hillclimb and Sprint Championship for two of the most famous hills in Ireland.
Saturday morning brought blue skies over the corkscrew hillclimb with the talk round the paddock of who or anybody could beat Sylvie Mullins in his Gould GR37.
As the practice run was over it was clear that Mullins was going to have a fight on his hands and so he had with Simon McKinley in his Lant quickest out of the box on run 1 after Mullins making a mistake with Joe (the Greek) Courtney a close third in his oms hornet.
Run 2 saw a big upset when Mullins gearbox let go that would see him sidelined for the day leaving McKinley the man to catch could anyone get close.
As the cars lined up for the last blast times were getting quicker and quicker all day but Simon McKinley was a clear winner with a brilliant drive on the last run saw Joe Courtney in his Oms hornet finish in second and Paul O Connell in third in his Pilbeam who had electric problems all day fourth was Sylvie Mullins with his first and only time of the day, 5th was a Carnew man John C Byrne in his Jedi 6th was Rory (granddad) Stephens in his Radical 7th was Dermot Nolan in his Reynard before he broke his gearbox followed in a close 8th was John Mahon in his DJ with the championship sponsor Phil Price in 9th who was double driving Dermot Nolan's Reynard and 10th was Derek Daly in his Formula Renault.
Class winners on Saturday were Ray Cunningham in his lighting quick mini in class 1,Declan Cundelan in his escort took class 2, class 3a when to Ian Quinn in his Mini Busa,class 3b was Rory (granddad) Stephans, class 4 went to Frank Nutall in his Graham 1955,class 5 went to wexford man Enda Kennedy, class 6 was taken by Joe Courtney, class 7 was handed to Sylvie Mullins, class 8 was John O Sullivan in his Citroen C2, class 9 was taken by Ger Lodgins in his lovely Opel Manta and class 10 went to Tommy Flanagan in his MK2 Escort.
Sunday morning brought the blue sky out again for the 2.2 mile Ballyallaban hill climb.
With Mullins back in action with help from Simon McKinley's vast spares box it was promised to be a interesting day.
With the practice run done it was Sylvie Mullins who was awake early setting quickest time on run 1 from Simon McKinley with Paul O Connell a distance 3rd.
But it was short lived as Simon got his head down and went quickest on run 2 by nearly 2 seconds from Sylvie with Paul still 3rd with his electric gremlins back again.
On the last run Sylvie could not manage to get the better of Simon who was the clear winner leaving Mullins second who could just not get the power down on the bumpy road and Paul O Connell in third with his one and only time on the board left him scratching his head on what he had to do to get his Pilbeam going right, fourth was Adrian McCallion in his Suzuki Normandale, 5th went to Rory Stephens, 6th went to John C Byrne in his Jedi, 7th was Denis Hogan Jnr in his pristine BMW M3 which is nice to see him back on the pace after his layoff, 8th went to Ray Cunningham in his Mini, 9th went to Dean Laffey in his Reynard SF 81. But the drive of the day had to go to 10th placed man Eanna Carroll who broke a cv joint in his civic was kindly giving Denis Hogan Jnr BMW M3 and went on to make full use of its power even if Denis had his eyes closed ever time he seen his car roar off the start line. But the bad luck story of the weekend had to go to Dermot Nolan and Phil Price with Dermot breaking 2nd gear in his gearbox on Saturday Phil Price had to go one better by breaking 4th gear in Dermot's gearbox on Sunday.
Class winners on Sunday were Class 1 was Ray Cunningham in his Mini, Class 2 went to Kieran Curran in his Corsa, Class 3a went to Ian Quinn in his Mini Bosa, Class 3b went to Rory Stephen's, Class 4 went to Barry Smith in his MK1 Escort, Class 5 went to Enda Kennedy, Class 6 went to Adrian McCallion, Class 7 was Sylvie again, Class 8 went to John O Sullivan in his C2, Class 9 went to Ger Hodgins before the engine in his Manta cried enough and Class 10 went to Tommy Flanagan.
SATURDAY 1 Simon McKinley (Lant RT2 Warrior) 48.39s, (Equals existing record),
2 Joe Courtney (OMS-Suzuki) 49.60s,
3 Paul O’Connell (Pilbeam MP58 Hart) 49.67s,
4 Sylvie Mullins (Gould GR37-Judd) 49.92s,
5 John Byrne (Jedi-Honda) 51.10s,
6 Rory Stephens (Radical SR3 Hayabusa Turbo) 52.37s,
7 Dermot Nolan (Reynard 873-Connaught) 53.47s,
8 John Mahon (DJ-ADS1 Hayabusa) 53.48s,
9 Phil Price (Reynard 873-Connaught) 54.48s,
10 Derek Daly (Tatuus F Renault) 56.53s.
Class winners: Ray Cunningham (Mini) 58.02s, Declan Cundelan (Escort) 59.48s, Ian Quinn (Mini-Hayabusa) 58.87s, Rory Stephens, Frank Nuttall (Graham Ford) 44.07s (net), Enda Kennedy (Sheane VW) 61.78s, Joe Courtney, Paul O’Connell, John O’Sullivan (Citroen C2) 62.07s, Ger Hodgins (Manta) 61.40s, Tommy Flanagan (Escort) 62.29s.
Class winners: Ray Cunningham, Kieran Curran (Corsa) 127.98s, Ian Quinn (Mini-Hayabusa) 120.87s, Rory Stephens, Barry Smith (Escort) 91.86s (net), Enda Kennedy (Sheane VW) 130.70s, Adrian McCallion, Sylvie Mullins, John O’Sullivan (Citroen C2) 121.74s, Ger Hodgins (Manta) 120.61s, Tommy Flanagan (Escort) 127.85s.
Contact details for the Event Seretary for the Clare & Galway Hillclimb have been changed.
Please contact 086 8902057 / +353 86 8902057 for Entries and all other information about the event.
Clare & Galway Motor Clubs Hillclimb Weekend 2012
Posted: March 31, 2012 10:30 AM
Rounds three & four of the “Connaught Competition Engines Irish Hillclimb & Sprint Championship 2012” will take place near Ballyvaughan in North Clare on April 14th. & 15th.
This year’s 12 round Championship takes place over six weekends taking in some of the most scenic parts of Clare, Galway, Wexford, Wicklow and Donegal and the events bring a much needed boost to the local economy with demand for accommodation, food and entertainment.
For the second year in succession The Clare Motor Club have teamed up with the Galway Motor Club to co promote one hillclimb weekend. The Clare Club will run the Corkscrew Hill on Saturday under Clerk of the Course Dermot Kelleher from Clarecastle while Sunday’s hill Ballyallaban will be run by the Galway Motor Club under Clerk of the Course Joan Vaughan from Ballyvaughan. This will give competitors a great opportunity to compete on two of the best and most challenging hills in the Hillclimb Championship series.
“Logue’s Lodge”, Ballyvaughan have again stepped in as the main sponsor of this year’s event and both clubs are very grateful to Alan for his generous sponsorship.
A special weekend menu will be available each night over the weekend including prizegiving, video footage of each day’s action and music till late.
All the championship contenders are expected to attend including current Hillclimb champion Simon McKinley driving his Lant RT4.
There should also be a big turn out in the Rally Car Classes with Clare & Galway Motor Club members fighting for positions in the various classes.
Event secretary for the Clare / Galway event can be contacted on
(New Number:) 086 8902057 / +353 86 8902057 between 6.00pm and 9.00pm
Optional Mechanical & Documentation Scrutiny will take place at the Ballyvaughan Filling Station, Ballyvaughan on this Friday evening 13TH. April between
6.00 and 8.00pm. There will also be Mechanical & Documentation Scrutiny in the paddock of both hills between 8.00am and 10.00am.
Prizegiving will take place on Saturday & Sunday Evenings at Logues Lodge, Ballyvaughan and will be followed by music and entertainment. Meals will be available all day in the restaurant.
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