THE recent Dunmanway-based Skibbereen 100 Isles Navigation Trial ended in somewhat controversial circumstances with six crews all completing the 80-mile on a clean sheet.
The result was decided on a tie-break and even then, there were joint winners of the event that dovetailed as rounds of the Motorsport Ireland National Navigation Trial and the Munster Navigation Trial championships.
Last year’s winners Rosscarbery’s Brian O’Mahony and Leap’s Amy Gallwey (Subaru) along with the Passage West born duo of Ray and Stephen O’Neill (Subaru) were adjudged joint-winners by virtue of their semi-expert status and the equal cubic capacity of their cars. Bandon brothers Mark and Adrian Phelan (Subaru Impreza) won the Beginner’s category – incurring just a single penalty. The Leap father and son pairing of James and Ciaran French (Subaru Forester) came out best in the Novice section, they finished with two penalties.
There was early drama when the top two seeds - O’Mahony/Gallwey and Ovens driver Owen Murphy (Subaru Impreza) and his Monaghan navigator Shane Maguire both had a wrong approach to TP2 near Kilronane West just south of Dunmanway. While the infringement was recorded on the marshal’s master sheet, it wasn’t displayed on the competitor’s time card. While several other competitors were aware of the situation, as some of them even encountered the crews en-route, the regulations state that unless a clarification is made by the organisers prior to the start of the event, competitor’s time cards take precedence.
Results pertaining to a number of time points close to the finish were scrubbed, apparently due to inadequate location information. Drinagh navigator Denis O’Donovan and his driver Alan Shinnors were one of the other crews to finish with zero penalties, they were third overall.
National championship hopefuls Mogeely’s James Fitzgerald and Ballincollig’s Ken Carmody (Subaru Impreza) suffered a dent to their title bid when they finished outside the top ten.
The event concluded proceedings in the Munster series with Fitzgerald taking the top driver award and O’Donovan clinching the navigator’s ahead of Carmody. Donoughmore’s Patrick O’Leary was the top navigator in the Expert class; Bandon based Ruaidhri Nash won the navigator’s award in the Semi-Expert class; the Novice category was won by James and Ciaran French while Blarney’s Beau and Ciara Roberts won the Beginner’s category.Results: =1. B. O’Mahony/A Gallwey (Subaru Impreza) & R. O’Neill/Stephen O’Neill (Subaru Impreza) 0 pens; 3. A. Shinnors/D. O’Donovan (Subaru Impreza) 0 pens; 4. A. Mackarel/G. Shinnors (Subaru Impreza) 0 pens; 5. C. Duffy/S. Johnston (Subaru Impreza) 6. P. Duffy/E. Hughes (Subaru Impreza) 0 pens; 7. M. Phelan/A. Phelan (Subaru Impreza) 1 pen; 8. J. French/C. French (Subaru Forester) 2 pens; 9. S. McHugh/E. Creedon (Suzuki Ignis) 7 pens; 10. O. Murphy/S. Maguire (Subaru Impreza) 15 pens.
