Rally Time Trial Report

16 July 2018

Rally Time Trial Serves up Thrills and Spills Galore

Carn Quarry near Ederney saw the Campbell Contracts Rally Time Trial host over 50 rally cars in near perfect conditions on Saturday last. From 11am till late afternoon the quarry reverberated to the bellow of MkII Escorts, the screaming of Vauxhall Novas and Corsas plus the ‘bang bang’ injection and flame-spitting exhausts of a plethora of 4WD Subarus and Mitsubishi Evos. The spectators were treated to some very tight competition as the cars slid and spun their way round the twisty course laid out by Enniskillen Motor Club [EMC] which tested the drivers to the limit, especially when the rain came! Drivers had one practice run followed by 5 counting runs with their best two runs put together to count as their final time. Omagh’s Patrick O’Brien came finished first Overall and 4WD Category winner in his Class 8 Evo by just 3.77 seconds from Eoighan Rogers in his Class 2 Evo with Stephen Dickson in his similar Evo 8.97 seconds behind in third. Out of 48 finishers David Dennison won the 2WD Category in his very rapid 1,400 cc Nova coming in 8^th overall in the process. In the Class battles Martin Collins claimed Class 1 in his Peugeot 106 with Ballinamallard man Derek Robinson second in his RWD Corolla. In Class 2 for Group N cars over 2,000cc Eoighan Rogers was first with Stephen Dickson second while his father Ashley came in third in their shared Evo 9. Belnaleck men Nigel Hodgins and Gary McBrien shared Nigel’s Subaru but a pipe coming off the turbo cost valuable time and they finished 5^th and 6^th in Class respectively. Newtownbutler driver Michael McDaid brought hos Evo home in 7^th whilst Enniskillen’s Chris McCarthy took 8^th. Brendan Campbell, appearing unusually for him in an Evo, finished up 9^th in Class. Class 3 was won by the hard-charging David Dennison with second and third taken by Dean Humphrey [Corsa] and Damian Conlin [Nova]. Class 4 was won by Travis Humphrey [Peugeot 205] with Darren Collins [Peugeot 205] coming second and local man Raymond Elliott taking third in his Corsa. Class 5 was another class dominated by small engined front wheel drive machines; the nature of the tight, twisty and extremely slippery loose surface suiting these cars more than the high revving RWD Escorts. Ashley White [Corsa] took the honours in this Class but only just,  as Trillick’s Ruairi Maguire[Corsa] was a hair’s-breadth behind by just 0.29 seconds while Fivemiletown’s Andrew McMahon came third in his Peugeot 106. Then came the ‘entertainers’ – Class 6 dominated by MkII Escorts. In first place was Hugh McQuaid steering his rapid pinto-engined Escort to a Class win just ahead of Declan Campbell in his similar car by a mere 1.58 seconds with Dara Campbell third just 1.64 seconds in arrears, again in a MkII Escort. 4^th in this Class was young Caolan McKenna from Ballinamallard whilst behind him in 5^th came another Campbell, this time it was Ronan, both in Escorts.  In 5^th place was Omagh’s Ruairi McCaffrey [Escort] and Springfield’s Rodney Donaldson secured 6^th and Liam McQuaid took 7^th in the Escort shared with brother Hugh.  Then we were treated to no less than three BDG-engined Escorts in Class 7 plus Kinawley’s Kevin McQuaid in his beautifully prepared Vauxhall Chevette. Marc Johnston shared one of the Historic Appendix ‘K’ cars with Dad Raymond winning the Class by 4.34 seconds from the similar car of Omagh’s Ryan Barrett with Raymond Johnston taking third, Aaron Cunningham[Escort] 4^th and McQuaid bringing his newly built Chevette home in one piece in 5^th place. Class 8 saw the Evo 6 of Joe Hegarty claim first with Cormac McElvaney came second in his Evo7 with Clones’ Martin Tynan taking 3^rd in his Evo7. . EMC would like to thank sponsors Campbell Contracts for their generous sponsorship of this event once again and acknowledge the kind permission of McCaffrey’s Quarries for the use of Carn Quarry as a venue. The event ran smoothly with no hold-ups to speak of and was thoroughly enjoyed by competitors and spectators alike.