LOGUE’S LODGE CLARE MOTOR CLUB HILLCLIMB WEEKEND 2010 - Report
Posted: April 15, 2010 12:30 PM
Damp and greasy conditions greated the drivers on the Corkscrew Hill near Ballyvaughan for the opening two rounds of the 2010 Connaught Competition Engines Hillclimb / Sprint Championship.
The Logue’s Lodge Clare Hillclimb Weekend was won by Simon McKinley from Rush in County Dublin driving his Lant RT2 Racing Car. Simon was fastest on both days.
As local hillclimb ace Sylvie Mullins from Ballyvaughan did not have his car ready for the event the battle for supremacy was between Simon McKinley and current Hillclimb champion, Limerick’s Paul O’Connell.
This was Paul’s first event in his brand new 2.8 litre, four cylinder Hart Engined Pilbeam MP58H Hillclimb Racing Car which produces 350 horse power.
It turned out to be a troublesome day for both drivers as McKinley failed to make the first timed run and the car broke a cv joint after leaving the start line on run two. Simon posted his best time of 56.00 seconds on run three to take the fastest time on the corkscrew. O’Connell had electrical and gear selection problems with his new car and he also failed to make the first two timed runs. Paul also posted his fastest time on run three 58.12 seconds, commenting that the corkscrew would not be his favourite hill but that he did enjoy the wet conditions. Both drivers failed to improve on the fourth and final run. Brendan Keane (Swallow DRI4) and Stephen Gillis (Westfield SEI) tied for third overall both a time of 60.98 seconds. The beautifully turned out Radical SR3 Hayabusa Turbo of Rory Stephens fisished fifth with a time of 61.08 seconds while Galway’s Mini specialist Ray Cunningham finished sixth on 61.23 in his newly built Mini.
The Class winners were Ray Cunningham, Tommy Murphy, Stephen Gillis, Rory Stephens, Gerry Freeman, Joe Courtney, Paul O’Connell, Peter Cummins. Clare motor club members Ross Kenny finished first in his class while Michael Rodgers finished third in class.
Sunday’s action moved to the Scalp Hill near carran. This daunting high speed hill which travels through the cutting in the rocks is absolutely breathtaking. With the majority of the corners being 3rd and 4th gear corners and the surface being relatively bumpy it presents a different challenge to the Corkscrew. With drivers reaching speeds in excess of 130 mph it is certainly not for the fainthearted.
Simon McKinley was first to head the time sheets after run one with a time of 59.42 seconds on the fully extended hill having broken another CV Joint while crossing the finish line at the top. Simon improved his time on the second timed run to 59.42 which was the fastest time of the day and gave him overall victory. Paul O’Connell still had electrical problems on sunday but with the help of the clare motor club officials he managed to complete all three timed runs and posted a best time of 59.93 seconds on run two . With damp conditions all day and heavy rain on the last run paul commented that he was a lot happier with the car and that he enjoyed racing on one of his favourite hills in the championship Rory Stephens Radical SR3 Hayabusa Turbo finished third overall with a time of 69.68 seconds while Seamus Morris (Pilbeam MP52) finished fourth overall on 70.64 seconds.
There was a big increase in the number of rally cars on the Sunday hill as a lot of clare club members did battle for class positions. Anthony O’Halloran was the top clare club member on the day finishing fifth overall and second in class with a time of 71.73 seconds in his Mitsubishi Evo 9. Clare club member Patrick Horan put in a stunning drive in his little Vauhhall Nova to finish tenth overall and first in class. Other Clare club award winners included Tony Tuttle third in class, Martin O’Halloran second in class, Tom Ryan third in class and Robert Ryan third in class.
The class winners were Ray Cunningham, Tommy Murphy, Stephen Gillis, Rory Stephens, Dermot Quigley, Joe Courtney, Paul O’Connell, Patrick Horan, Ed Synan.
Overall a great weekend sport and a great boost to local tourism at this relatively quite time of the year.
Clare Motor Club would like to thank most sincerely the residents on both hills, the business community and people of Ballyvaughan and Carran. The Ballyvaughan Development Committee, Logue’s Lodge, all the Clare Motor Club officials and marshals who helped to make this a very successful weekend for the Club. The Clare Motor Club would also like to thank the Gardai Siochanna, the Clare County Council, the emergency and rescue services, Motorport Ireland without whose assistance this event would not have been possible.
Full Results
Posted: April 15, 2010 12:12 PM
Day One
1 Simon McKinley (Lant RT2) 56.00s,
2 Paul O‚Connell (Pilbeam MP58 Hart) 58.12s,
3 Brendan Keane (Swallow F3) 60.98s,
4 Stephen Gillis (Westfield) 60.98s,
5 Rory Stephens (Radical SR3 Hayabusa Turbo) 61.08s,
6 Ray Cunningham (Mini) 61.23s,
7 Joe Courtney (OMS) 61.30s,
8 Eanna Carroll (Civic Turbo) 61.51s,
9 John Mahon (DJ-Hayabusa) 61.66s,
10 Trevor Cullen (Escort G3) 62.14s.
Class winners:
Ray Cunningham,
Tommy Murphy (Civic) 64.72s,
Stephen Gillis,
Rory Stephens,
Gerry Freeman (Anglia) 51.27s (net),
Joe Courtney,
Paul O'Connell,
Ross Kenny (Civic) 69.36s,
Peter Cummins (Darrian T90) 66.15s.
Day Two
1 Simon McKinley (Lant RT2) 59.42s,
2 Paul O'Connell (Pilbeam MP58 Hart) 59.93s,
3 Rory Stephens (Radical SR3 Hayabusa Turbo) 69.68s,
4 Seamus Morris (Pilbeam MP52) 70.64s,
5 Anthony O‚Halloran (Lancer Evo 9) 71.73s,
6 John Donnelly (Coogar Rover V8) 72.38s,
7 Eanna Carroll (Civic Turbo) 72.99s,
8 Ed Synan (Escort) 73.40s,
9 Joe Courtney (OMS) 73.50s,
10 Patrick Horan (Nova) 73.74s.
Class winners:
Ray Cunningham (Mini) 78.41s,
Tommy Murphy (Civic) 78.70s,
Stephen Gillis (Westfield) 78.16s,
Rory Stephens,
Dermott Quigley (Anglia) 65.76s (net),
Joe Courtney,
Paul O'Connell,
Patrick Horan,
Ed Synan.
Posted: April 15, 2010 12:08 PM
Left to Right: Donal Morrissey
(competitor), with his fully restored 1934 Lagonda Rapier Special,
Sylvie Mullins (competitor),
Declan McNamara (competitor),
Jane Cogan (coc) and Richard Casey (coc)
Photo: Dermot Kellher
Preview - Logue’s Lodge Clare Motor Club Hillclimb Weekend 2010
Posted: March 30, 2010 4:29 PM
The opening two rounds of the “Connaught Competition Engines Irish Hillclimb & Sprint Championship 2010” kicks into action this Easter Weekend April 3rd. and 4th. in North Clare with he annual Clare Motor Club Hillclimb Weekend.
This year’s 14 round Championship takes place over seven weekends taking in some of the most scenic parts of Clare, Galway, Wexford, Limerick, Tipperary, Wicklow and Donegal and the events bring a much needed boost to the local economy with demand for accommodation, food and entertainment.
Based in Ballyvaughan, The Clare Club who successfully revived The Famous Corkscrew Hill a couple of years ago will run it again this year on Saturday and will be followed by the Scalp Hill near Carran Village on the Sunday.
Both the Corkscrew and Scalp hills have been fully resurfaced and are now as smooth as a racetrack and should make for fantastic racing.
“Logue’s Lodge”, Ballyvaughan have stepped in as the main sponsor of this year’s event and the club 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 will attend including current Hillclimb Champion Limerick’s Paul O’Connell , driving his Delta T79 Warrior racing car and
Clare Motor Club member Sylvie Mullins from Ballyvaughan who is working hard to have his GOULD GR37 Racing Car ready for this weekend. The 600 horse power unit is having a full rebuild but Sylvie assures us he will be there to defend his 2009 title of the fastest driver for both days on the two clare hills.
Last years event saw a big battle between these two drivers with clare man Sylvie setting a blistering pace on the fifth run of 48.57 seconds, smashing the previous years Corkscrew record by ten seconds. Sylvie was fastest on all five runs on the corkscrew while paul finished second on a time of 53.28 seconds. On Sunday with the action moving to the Scalp Hill there was a thrilling tussle for top honours between three drivers. 2006 hillclimb champion Frank Byrnes, Paul O’Connell and Sylvie Mullins.
Frank was first to head the time sheets on run 1 with a time of 47.09 seconds in his pilbeam 5000cc. Then it was Sylvie who claimed the fastest time on run 2 with 46.05 seconds. Byrnes again made the top spot on run 3 with a time of 45.34 seconds followed by paul o’connell on 45.56 while Sylvie ripped a tyre half way up the hill after clipping a rock and had to retire. Going into the last run there was 0.12 of a second between Frank and Paul and the reigning champion Paul showed his class by knocking more than 1.5 seconds off his previous time while Byrnes failed to improve. Paul commenting after the event that he pulled out all the stops on the final run and that it was scary stuff and frightening speed.
Frank Byrnes finished second while Sylvie had done enough done to take third.
Sylvie claimed the trophy for the fastest man overall on both day’s.
Another contender for victory this weekend is Dubliner Rory Stphens who finished third overall on last years Corkscrew in his beautiful Hyabushia powered Radical SR3 Racing car. Rory has made some serious modifications to the car over the winter including turbo charging in a bid to win this year’s overall championship.
Clare competitors who will be looking for results this weekend include Ballyvaughan’s Declan McNamara, Sean Connole Murt O’Loughlin , Killian Connole Donal Morrissey. John Donnelly will drive John McNamara’s Coogar.
There will also be a big turn out in the Rally Car Classes and will include a lot of Clare Motor Club members who will be fighting for positions in the various classes.
Clerk of the course for Saturday’s Corkscrew Hill is Richard Casey from Ruan
While Sunday’s Clerk of the course is Jane Cogan from Miltown Malbay. Event secretary is Liz Farrell.
Mechanical & Document Scrutiny will take place at the Ballyvaughan Filling Station, Ballyvaughan on this Friday evening 2nd. April between
4-8pm.
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.
A couple of things to bear in mind for the weekend.
Please be courteous and polite to officials and marshalls. These people give their time willingly to make this weekend a sucess and without the hard work from these volunteers we would not have a hillclimb.
Be careful of your surroundings. The Burren is a a very fragile place and some of the plant life that exists there is not seen anywhere else on the planet, so please be careful where you walk and bring home any rubbish.
If a marshall asks you to move from where you are standing it is for your own safety or because you may be obstructing their view of another marshall. Please obey them or they will have to stop the event.
Please feel free to talk to the drivers in the paddock, they are a friendly, sociable bunch on the whole. And please feel free to attend the prizegiving. Its usually good fun with plenty of humour!
The classes this year are as follows
Class1 Production Saloons up to 1400cc including Minis with removable front section
(2) Production Saloons up to 1650cc
(3a) Production Saloons 1651cc to 2050cc, GT/Sports cars up to 1650cc
(3b) Production Saloons and Rally cars over 2050cc, GT/Sports cars over 1650cc and 4wd Rally Cars
(4) Classic Cars per HRCA regulations (see Appendix 48) and FIA Appendix K
(5) Formula Ford 1600 as per Ford Motorsport Regulations and Formula Vee as MI Appendix 44 regulations
(6) Formula Libre Single Seaters up to 2050cc having only one camshaft and Single Seaters up to 1650cc with two or more camshafts
(7) Libre Unlimited and all other 4wd cars
(8) Rally cars up to 1650cc
(9) Rally cars 1651cc to 2050cc
The numbers system on the Championship registered cars this weekend have been changed. Now when you see a competitor with 01 as part of their number that means they are last years class champion.
For example car 101 is last years class 1 champion, car 102 was second in class 1, 103 third etc.
Car 202 was class 2 champion and so on. In class 3a car 301 is class champion and in 3b number 351 is class champion, 352 is 2nd in class last year.
The overall winner and the 2nd and 3rd place competitors in the overall championship carry numbers IRL 1, 2 and 3 respectively.
We hope you have a great weekend and you thouroughly enjoy yourselves and remember to drive home safely.
The Corkscrew hill will be closed to traffic on Saturday between 10.00am – 6.00pm and on Sunday on the Scalp Hill between 10.00am – 6.00pm. and Traffic Diversions will be in place.
The Clare Motor Club would like to thank the residents on both hills and the Business Community of Ballyvaughan The Clare County Council and The Gardaifor their assistance in making this one of the most popular rounds of the Hillclimb Championship.
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