A busy year for Clare Motor Club

The past year has been an extremely busy and very successful one for the Clare Motor Club.

Back in January, the club hosted the 2009 awards ceremony for the Top Part West Coast Rally Championship in the Auburn Lodge Hotel. The popular seven-round championship consists of rallies in Birr, Kerry, Limerick, Galway and Clare.
The awards ceremony was well attended with drivers, navigators, event organisers, team sponsors, families and friends, who turned out from all over the country to honour the 2009 prize winners.
MCs for the night were the voice of irish motorsport, Duggie Hughes, an honoury member of the Clare Motor Club, and Bill Fitzgerald, chairman of the West Coast Rally Championship Committee. John Dillane, MD of Top Part Ennis, presented the competitors with their awards.
The overall winners of the 2009 championship were Niall Maguire and Enda Sherry from Monaghan.
A busy month in April saw the club run their annual Hillclimb weekend in Ballyvaughan.
Damp and greasy conditions greeted 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 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 and the battle for supremacy was between Simon McKinley and current hillclimb champion, Limerick’s Paul O’Connell.
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 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.
Both drivers failed to improve on the fourth and final run. Brendan Keane (Swallow DRI4) and Stephen Gillis (Westfield SEI) tied for third overall. 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 Carron. Simon McKinley was first 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. 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 Vauhhall Nova to finish 10th 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 and Ed Synan.
Three weeks later, the Clare Motor Club was busy again, organising two rounds of the Premier Autoparts Munster Autotest Championship, which took place at Ryan’s Quarry, Toonagh.
This 15-round championship takes in Clare, Limerick, Cork, Skibereen and Imokilly in east Cork. At the end of this year’s championship, two local Clare Motor Club mermers, John Lyons from Kilmurry finished second in Class B1 in a Toyota Starlet Special while Mark Coughlan from Cratloe finished third in the same class in his Opel Corsa Special.
The club’s premier event, The Clare Stages Rally, took place on Sunday, September 19. Based at the Auburn Lodge Hotel, Ennis, for the second year in succession, the event, which returned to the Dunlop National Rally Championship after its drop-out year in 2009, turned out to be the deciding round of the championship.
Welsh ace Mel Evans (Subaru WRC) and co-driver Patrick Walsh clinched the Dunlop National Rally Championship courtesy of their third place in the Ennis-based rally, the penultimate round of the series. 
The event was won by Tim McNulty/Paul Kiely (Subaru WRC), who finished seven seconds ahead of the Subaru WRC of Derek McGarrity/James McKee. 
The Group N category was won by the local Clare crew of Anthony O’Halloran/Charlie McEnery (Mitsubishi), who finished eight overall, while Wesley Patterson/Martin McGarrity (Ford Escort), won the modified category.
Clare Motor Club members who received awards included Pat and Sinéad Canny (Ford Fiesta) finished third in Class 3 and Tony Tuttle and John Hurley (Ford Escort) finished second in class 13.
Gráinne McEnery and Mike Quinn (Ford Escort) finished second in class 14 and also won the mixed crew award. John Lernihan and Robert Ryan (Mitsubishi Lancer) finished second in class 15 while Martin Kelly and Eoin Ryan received the best unplaced Clare crew award.
The prestigious Noel McCullagh Award was presented to the fastest Clare crew on the day, Anthony O’Halloran and Charlie McEnery, while the Dermot Molloy Award was presented to Ruan’s Martin Casey and Katie Quinn.
The 2010 Petro Systems National Forest Rally Championship saw two Clare crews finish in the awards. Miltown Malbay’s Eddie Cogan and John Tracey finished first in Class four in their Ford Escort G3 while Kilmurry’s Christy Carey finished third overall in his Mitsubishi Evo 8.
At the recent awards ceremony for the 2010 Dunlop National Rally Championship, which took place in the Clayton Hotel in Galway, Clare Motor Club member Alan O’Callaghan from Kilmurry, with Cathal McGrath calling the notes, took second place in class eight in his Subaru Impreza, while Ennis navigator Gráinne McEnery took second place in class 14 with Kerry driver Mike Quinn.
The Clare club finished off the year by organising an indoor rally car, bike and vintage show in the Ballymaley Industrial Estate, which proved an outstanding success.