Donegal’s McGonigle & Ciaran Geaney go Wild on Atlantic Drive stages in Mayo
Donegal pair Joe McGonigle and Ciaran Geaney drove their Skoda Fabia to a clear win in the Mayo Stages Rally on Achill Island. After five stages, they had 47 seconds to spare over runners up Frank Wray and Joe McNulty in their Impreza, with the Escort of Adrian Hetherington and Ronan O’Neill right behind in third place. (Pic; Rally-Through-A-Lens).
The R5 Fiesta of Pauric Duffy and Kevin Glynn set the early pace, leading for the first two stages, but they had problems on the next run through the same stages which cost them almost two minutes, and dropped to fourth position at the finish.
Seven times Hewison Autotest champion Steven Ferguson finished the season in style, scoring his seventh victory of the series in MEC’s final round at Mondello Park. The Tyrone driver was quickest on seven of the twelve tests to finish 18 seconds ahead of Kilkenny’s Ian White, who had his best result yet.
Another Tyrone man, Paul Mooney, duelled with Ferguson for the lead until he lost 20 seconds when his car’s engine cut out on one test, finally taking third position.
MOTORSPORT IRELAND Results for 11/12 March 2017 MAYO & DISTRICT MC ACHILL ISLAND HOTEL MAYO STAGES RALLY AT ACHILL SOUND, CO MAYO (ROUND 1 OF SLIGO PALLETS BORDER CHAMPIONSHIP): 1 Joe McGonigle/Ciaran Geaney (Skoda Fabia R5) 43m 18s, 2 Frank Wray/Joe McNulty (Impreza WRC) 44m 05s, 3 Adrian Hetherington/Ronan O'Neill (Escort) 44m 06s, 4 Pauric Duffy/Kevin Glynn (Fiesta R5) 45m 10s, 5 Pat Donegan/Alan Keena (Escort) 45m 14s, 6 Mickey Conlon/Martin Byrne (Escort) 45m 32s, 7 Vivian Hamill/Andrew Grennan (Escort) 46m 10s, 8 Seamus Connolly/Gary McCrudden (Corolla) 46m 29s, 9 Daniel Conaghan/Terence Magee (Escort) 46m 40s, 10 Maurice Moffett/Jason McKenna (Starlet) 46m 55s. Group N Production class: Pat Price/Andrew Curran (Lancer Evo 9). Juniors: 1 Jason Black/Jack McKenna (Starlet) 48m 17s, 2 Adrian Sweeney/Shane Buckley (Peugeot 207) 49m 39s, 3 Jonny Treanor/Adrian Foley (Civic) 54m 01s. MOTOR ENTHUSIASTS' CLUB FREEMAN CUP AUTOTEST AT MONDELLO PARK, CO KILDARE (FINAL ROUND OF HEWISON TROPHY CHAMPIONSHIP): 1 Steven Ferguson (Mini-Nova Special) 617.5s, 2 Ian White (Mini Special) 635.6s, 3 Paul Mooney (Mini-Nova Special) 638.6s, 4 Timmy Lynch (Westfield) 650.3s, 5 Paddy Power (Mini Moke) 659.3s, 6 Chris Grimes (Mini) 660.6s, 7 Guy Foster (Mini Special) 669.7s, 8 Darren Quille (Westfield) 671.5s, 9 Norman Ferguson (Mini) 697.6s, 10 Tom Devaney (Westfield) 704.4s, 11 Liam Cashman (Westfield) 707.7s, 12 Mark Doran (Locost) 713.6s. Class winners: Chris Grimes, Ian White, Timmy Lynch, Matt Grimes (Nova) 973.9s. Novice Award: Cian Power (Mini Special) 844.7s.
