MAYO DRIVERS AMONG PRIZEWINNERS AT SLIGO GRAVEL AUTOCROSS

Posted: May 31, 2000 10:20 PM

The May 21st event held at Harrington’s Quarry had once again a full entry list of 65 cars with as many as 9 Class Awards up for grabs, as well as the top prize for Fastest Time of the Day (FTD). In all, six trophies came to the Mayo Club with Walter Burke (Williamstown) continuing his good form with a Top 10 finish and second in Class 9 in his 2 litre Mark II Escort. Walter’s best time over the 3x1 mile laps was 3 minutes 11.74 seconds, more than 7 seconds better than his effort in the first round in April. Next up for green and red county was Sean McHugh (Bekan) in his Peugeot 205 GTi rally car. Sean was pleased with his personal best time of 3:18:94 and the third prize in Class 2 to boot! Three other prize winners for the Club remarkably finished within one second of each other, despite competing in different classes. Cormac Hession (Garrafrauns) topped the trio, stopping the clock at 3:24:67 on his third run. The Escort Mark II driver secured 2nd in Class 8 in the process. Ballina’s Trevor Morrow also took second but in Class 1 in his Suzuki Swift. Trevor had only two clean runs of the three laps on the day but was satisfied with 3:25:33. Noel Reilly (Dunmore) rounded off the prize-winning threesome with 2nd in Class 3 with his best time in the Escort Mark II at 3:25:37.

New Club member John McGeehan also representing the Dunmore contingent made a successful debut at the venue clocking 3:31:36 on the final loop in his Ford Fiesta.

Crossmolina teenager, Killian Duffy, was the final Club member to bring home a prize with 2nd in Class 7. In his first visit to the temporary track Killian in his self prepared Talbot Samba improved as the day progressed knocking off over 20 seconds from the first run to the third with his final time at 3:44.32.

Just ahead of Killian in the overall classification was Jarlath Sweeney (Claremorris) in his first ever-competitive outing as a driver. The Club’s Press Officer for once left down the pen to sit behind the steering wheel of Sean McHugh’s Peugeot and took to the challenge like ‘duck to water’! After a somewhat cautious start he improved by over 21 seconds at the end of the days action with a best time of 3:41:52.

The Belcarra duo of Fiachra Moran and Kenneth Jordan had a fraught day’s entertainment. Both drivers got only two runs as Kenneth’s final attempt came to an abrupt end due to a quite spectacular crash. Thankfully, he was unhurt but their Nissan Violet may not rally again. For the record, Fiachra and Kenneth’s times were 3:37:53 and 3:48:79 respectively.

The next round of the Connaught Motor Club Autocross Championship takes place at the same venue on August 27th where Mayo & District Motorsport Club will again have a strong representation.