First woman to win rally championship

ENNIS lady navigator Gráinne McEnery with Kerry driver Mike Quinn (Ford Escort) secured the 2011 Top Part West Coast Rally Championship by finishing second overall at the recent Banna Resort Kerry Mini Stages Rally.
Gráinne, who works as service manager with O’Sullivan and Hansbury Motors in Ennis, is the first Clare competitor to win the championship since its inception in 1993.
The championship is run over six rounds, starting with the Birr and District Motor Club Stages Rally, followed by the Circuit Of Kerry, Limerick’s Circuit of Munster, Galway’s Summer Rally, the Clare Stages Rally and concludes with the Kerry Mini Stages in Banna.
Gráinne developed an interest in rallying from a young age as her dad, Joe, a keen rally spectator and her brother, Charlie, a championship-winning navigator, would bring her to various events around the country.
She competed in her first rally as a navigator in 2006, the Clare Single Stage with driver John Reddington, where they finished 11th overall.
In 2008, Gráinne sat with local Clare drivers, Eddie Cogan and Martin Kelly. In 2009, she was introduced to Kerry driver, Mike Quinn and after a very competitive year, they finished second overall in the West Coast Rally Championship and winners of the Rally.ie National 2wd Drive Championship.
Other achievements in 2009 included third overall in the Circuit of Kerry; first in class in the Circuit Of Munster; sixth overall in the Galway Summer Rally; sixth overall in the Stonethrowers Rally; second in the overall Clare Stages Rally; third overall in the Banna Mini Stages Rally and first overall in the Killarney Historics Rally.
2010 saw the McEnery/Quinn team finish third overall in the West Coast Rally Championship, while 2011 proved a very successful year with serious effort put into winning the West Coast Rally Championship.
The crew started the year with the Birr Stages Rally where they finished 13th overall, followed by seventh overall in the Circuit of Kerry. Limerick’s Circuit of Munster saw them finish fourth overall and put them into the lead of the championship.
The Clare Stages Rally in September saw Gráinne compete in her 26th rally with Mike. They finished fifth overall and won the National Drive of the Day award.
The final round of the West Coast Championship, the Kerry Mini Stages, saw drivers Mike Quinn and Shane Maguire tied on 78 points, while co-driver Gráinne needed to take maximum points in order to take the lead from Limerick’s Sean Mullally, who was sitting with Shane Maguire.
On stage one, Mike and Gráinne led the event by four seconds from Alan Ring and were six seconds ahead of Barry Meade, with Shane Maguire in fourth place a further eight seconds back.
Meade took the lead on stage two and Quinn moved into second, six seconds behind. Shane Maguire was forced to retire from the event with turbo problems.
On stages three, four and five, Quinn/McEnery maintained second place and finished 11 seconds behind Barry Meade to secure the 2011 Top Part West Coast Rally Championship.
Gráinne is the first woman to win the championship and to receive the Michael Farrell Memorial Trophy.