The midland pairing of Sam Johnston and Colin Duffy took the victory on the opening round of the National night navigation championship on Saturday night with the Monaghan motorclub hosting the first event since early 2020 as it made its return following the Covid restrictions. Having hit some trouble in the early part of the night in dense fog on the Sliabh Beagh Mountain, the Subaru pairing recovered brilliantly to take the victory on the very last time point on 39 penalties. Second place and first in the expert class went to Evin Hughes and Packie Duffy who were a further 5 penalties down, with Conor Boylan and Derek Mackarel completing the top 3 and 2nd in class on 46 penalties. 3rd in the expert class went to David Mc Crudden and Emmet Sherry in their Toyota Starlet who were also the top finishing 2 wheel drive crew. It was an eventiful night for Conor Mohan and Michael Carbin who very nearly seen their trial end in the opening lane when they suffered some wheel damaged but managed to continue on to claim the Semi expert class ahead of Ryan Treanor and Bob Graham with Danny Mc Kenna and Francis Mc Elvaney completing that top 3.
Keith and Damien Sheridan were the best of the novices as they took 11th overall on what was a tough night for the navigators with plenty of map work required. Shane Magurie and Eoghan Corr were 2nd in the class 14th overall with Sean Marron and Aidan Keenan in 3rd. While the beginners class was claimed by Paul and Shane Maguire after they recovered from a mistake at the first time point to put in a great performance in the first half of the night and dealt with the majority of the trickery in the 2nd half. Ciaran and Conor Maguire were 2nd in the class with Jack Mc Kenna and Damien Treanor taking 3rd in what was one of the biggest classes on the night. The event was also the opening round of the Squealing Pig Border championship and Monaghan club championship.
Monaghan Night Navigation - November 2021 Top 10
1 - Colin Duffy/ Sam Johnston - Impreza
2 - Packie Duffy / Evin Hughes - Impreza
3 - Derek Mackarel / Conor Boylan - Impreza
4 - Emmet Sherry / David Mc Crudden - Starlet
5 - Michael Carbin / Conor Mohan - Impreza
6 - Michael Tynan / Ciaran Tynan - Impreza
7 - Bob Graham / Ryan Treanor - Starlet
8 - Richard Cassidy / Sean Mc Caffrey
9 - Francis Mc Elvaney / Danny Mc Kenna
10 - David Acheson / Philip Fitzpatrick.
