Cavan Navigation Trial (NT) - 19-20 Mar 11

Tynan/Grennan Win as Kierans/McAdoo Take Title

Posted: March 29, 2011 4:36 PM

Cavan Motor Club played host to the final round of the National Night Navigation Championship on 19th March. Dominic McArdle took on the role of COC choosing The Errigal Country Hotel in Cootehill as the venue. A short, sharp 70 mile event lay ahead featuring some class navigation lanes in the Lisboduff, Mountain Lodge & Kill areas. A top ten finish would be enough for Arthur Kierans & Ashley McAdoo to retain their National title but nothing could be taken for granted.

Monaghan duo Trevor Farrell/Noel Hall started at No1. Plot & Bash featured as early as TP3, TP4 and TP5. There was early trouble for top seeds, Farrell/Hall dropping 3 penalties into TP4. TP6 was at the famous Hall’s yard used many times over the years but there are two routes into it and only one is on the map. The correct approach was on the road given but some crews, remembering the other lane or by mistake, used it instead and got caught with a wrong approach. Leading victims included, Chris Kelly/Sam Johnston and Pakie Duffy/Colin Duffy with no fewer than 13 other crews also penalised for the same infringement. Next up was the famous Knock’s & Bunnoe lanes and a tricky lane into TP12 with a gap between two hedges hiding the slot off a lane which is almost impossible to get first time. Some crews dropped their first penalty here including Border Championship hopefuls Michael & Ciaran Tynan. A long grassy lane into TP15 outside Tullyvin was particularly challenging which only four crews managed to negotiate without incurring a penalty.

By the TRS that followed Declan Tynan/Andrew Grennan led on a clean sheet with no fewer than six crews on 1 penalty. Damien Hagan/Macartan Kierans, Kevin Keenan/Barry Garvey, Warren Carleton/John Hetherington, Michael Carbin/Evin Hughes, James Greenan/Ciaran Coyle and Andy Mackarel/Liam Higgins. But current champions Arthur Kierans/Ashley McAdoo were in trouble. Their car was stuck in gear leaving TP6 which forced necessary repairs to stay in the event. This they were able to achieve with the loss of 5 penalties but they now languished down in 13th place overall. The Championship was now very much in the balance. Meanwhile, title rivals Michael Carbin/Evin Hughes were not without their own problems as their trip metre failed. Quick thinking saw them run on the same minute as the crew behind them on the SRS which allowed them to negotiate the SRS without incurring a penalty.

The event then headed south towards Mountain Lodge and then towards a trio of plot & bash timepoints. There was no let up out front as Tynan/Grennan maintained their clean sheet. It all went wrong for Hagan/Kierans as they missed TP22 & TP23. Kevin Keenan/Barry Garvey dropped 1 penalty into TP23 as did James Greenan/Ciaran Coyle. Michael Carbin/Evin Hughes moved into 2nd on Semi over Expert from Andy Mackarel/Liam Higgins both crews on 1 penalty. With the last timepoint cancelled, the event was now effectively over.

Declan Tynan/Andrew Grennan took their 2nd event win together and it’s the second year in succession that they have won the final round of the championship. Michael Carbin/Evin Hughes finished in 2nd which proved to be enough to win the Squealing Pig-sponsored Border Championship but they just missed out on the National title by 2 points. Andy Mackarel/Liam Higgins completed the top 3 but lost out narrowly for the Border series. 4th overall went to Kevin Keenan/Barry Garvey (2 pens) with James Greenan/Ciaran Coyle 5th on furthest cleanest from Ray O’Neill/Stephen O’Neill both crews finishing on two penalties each. Michael Tynan/Ciaran Tynan (3 pens), Gareth Beagan/Stephen Thornton (3 pens) and Warren Carleton/John Hetherington (5 pens) were next, while rounding off the top 10 Arthur Kierans/Ashley McAdoo did just enough to seal their 4th National title in succession. It had to be a scary moment for them with their earlier mechanical trouble but it just goes to show that their ability to recover from this and not drop a single penalty to the end of the event proved to be a championship winning effort.

Expert class:
Andy Mackarel/Liam Higgins took the class on the night and with it they finished 2nd in class in the National championship. James Greenan/Ciaran Coyle teamed up for this event and the Donegal crew didn’t take long to settle as they secured 2nd in class ahead of Ray & Stephen O’Neill who had their best run of the year to take 3rd. Michael Tynan/Ciaran Tynan were next and secured 1st in the class in the National with Gareth Beagan/Stephen Thornton finishing 5th on the night with Kierans/McAdoo salvaging 6th. on the night.

Semi -Expert class:
Tynan/Grennan stormed to the overall win with Carbin/Hughes making it a Semi-Expert 1-2. Darren Babington/Francis Keenan maintained their excellent record of consistency with 3rd in class ahead of Chris Kelly/Sam Johnston. Daniel Byrne/Philip Smith and James Logue/Rory Coyle completed the top five.

Novice class:
Kevin Keenan/Barry Garvey had their best result of the year to claim class honours and 4th overall. Warren Carleton/John Hetherington also had a superb result, taking 9th overall and 2nd in class. Jim Wedlock/Thomas Wedlock took 3rd place on home soil with Gerry Cassidy/Paul Sheridan 4th and Donal McArdle/Matthew McKenna in 5th place. Class champions Pakie Duffy/Colin Duffy had a disappointing run with wrong approaches at TP3 and TP6 leaving them down in 9th in class.

Beginners class:
Peter Hagan/Micheal Reilly had a superb run as Micheal switched to the passengers seat to take class honours on just 12 penalties. 2nd in class went to class champions Darren Quinn/Nigel McCloughry with Damien Hagan/Macartan Kierans completing the top 3. Micheal McCluskey/Catriona McCluskey finished 4th on the night and 3rd in the championship ahead of Paul McKenna/Garry McCrudden in 5th.

Another hectic National Navigation Championship season is over. It’s been a tough season but despite the best efforts of their rivals, it’s Arthur Kierans/Ashley McAdoo who come out on top once again. Well done to all the award winners who are provisionally listed below. The date for the National Championship prize-giving and Open Forum will be announced at a later date.

Results

Posted: March 29, 2011 3:59 PM

1 Declan Tynan/Andrew Grennan (Subaru Impreza) 0 marks,
2 Michael Carbin/Evin Hughes (Subaru Legacy) 1m,
3 Andy Mackarel/Liam Higgins (Subaru Impreza) 1m,
4 Kevin Keenan/Barry Garvey (Subaru Impreza) 2m,
5 James Greenan/Ciaran Coyle (Nissan Almera) 2m,
6 Ray O’Neill/Stephen O’Neill (Ford Mondeo) 2m,
7 Mickey Tynan/Ciaran Tynan (Subaru Impreza) 3m,
8 Garreth Beagan/Stephen Thornton (Subaru Impreza) 3m,
9 Warren Carleton/John Hetherington (Toyota Carina) 5m,
10 Arthur Kierans/Ashley McAdoo (Subaru Impreza) 5m,
11 Trevor Farrell/Noel Hall (Subaru Impreza) 6m,
12 Gregory McQuillan/Conor Maguire (Vauxhall Vectra) 9m.
Semi-experts:
1 Michael Carbin/Evin Hughes,
2 Darren Babington/Francis Keenan (Subaru Impreza) 10m,
3 Chris Kelly/Sam Johnston (Subaru Impreza) 16m.

Novices:
1 Kevin Keenan/Barry Garvey,
2 Warren Carleton/John Hetherington,
3 Gerry Cassidy/Paul Sheridan (Subaru Impreza) 20m.

Beginners:
1 Peter Hagan/Michael Reilly (Proton) 12m,
2 Jim Wedlock/Thomas Wedlock (Vauxhall Vectra) 19m,
3 Darren Quinn/Nigel McCloughry (Toyota Sprinter) 23m.

Cavan Navigation Trial (NT) - 19-20 Mar 11 - RESULTS

Regulations / Details

Posted: January 2, 1990 3:00 PM

• Cavan Motor Club