Plenty of action at local car rally

There was a feast of motorsport action for local enthusiasts at the weekend with the four-wheeled variety catered for around the Kentstown area on Sunday morning. The ALMC / CityNorth Hotel-sponsored stages rally blasted off from Duleek early on Sunday morning towards the first stage at Kentstown. Some locals in the area were unhappy with the sight of speeding cars on the way to the first stage and contacted this office on Sunday to voice their concerns. ALMC official Raymond Scullion explained to the Meath Chronicle that competitors and spectators who are driving between stages are obliged to comply with speed limits. "We had up to 150 competitors in the rally and safety and compliance with regulations is paramount as far as we are concerned," Scullion told the Meath Chronicle this week. "The bad weather didn't help from a spectator perspective, but the numbers were similar to last year and we had no major problems. "We received great support locally and I am particularly grateful to people like Aidan Ryan, Jimmy Moss and Michael McGuinness for their assistance," he added. The opening stage near Kentstown took a route via Walterstown church, around Rathfeigh with the finish near the Snailbox pub. The second stage was in the Clonalvy area and the third stage was near Duleek and finished in Stamullen with each stage completed three times. The service area was at Duleek Business Park and the prizegiving was at CityNorth Hotel on Sunday night where Swords businessman Michael Barrable was presented with the overall prize following a fine drive in his Ford Focus WRC. The event was a round of the Midlands East Championship and the best local competitor was Oldcastle drive Trevor Mulligan and his co-driver Lisa Roe. They managed an impressive fourth place overall in a MK 2 Ford Escort while Summerhill drive Mark Nangle, accompanied by Nollaig Breen was two places further behind in sixth in a Subaru Impreza N12. Another Meath driver, Martin McKeown, competing in a Talbot Sunbeam managed seventh in class 10. Since the 1980s the club has organised rallies in various parts of Leinster and for the third successive year they hosted the rally along a carefully marked-out course in the east Meath region. "We were very encouraged by the number of entries we received," clerk of the course Noel Devlin told the Meath Chronicle. "The rally is a massive project that takes months of planning, it costs €100,000 to run the event that we have to fund from entry fees," added Devlin. "The biggest cost is insurance, the second biggest expense is road closing costs to the councils, fees, advertising." Inevitably there are objections from some local residents who don't want their movement restricted or their peace disturbed, but without the backing of the local population there would be no rally. Plans are already in the pipeline for next year's event. Results (top 10) - 1, Michael Barrable / Dermot O'Gorman (Focus WRC) 74m 27s; 2, John McGlaughlin / Crawford Henderson (Lancer Evo 9 Gp N) 77m 15s; 3, Mark Jasper / Don Whyatt (MG Metro 6R4) 77m 44s; 4, Trevor Mulligan / Lisa Roe (Escort) 78m 59s; 5, Eugene Meegan / Brian Sharkey (Civic) 79m 45s; 6, Mark Nangle / Nollaig Breen (Impreza Gp N) 80m 09s; 7, Robert Barrable / Damien Connolly (Fiesta) 81m 14s; 8, Brian Lawlor / Peter Kavanagh (Escort) 81m 14s; 9, Geoff McMahon / Rob Graham (Lancer Evo 10 Gp N) 81m 23s; 10, Stanley Ballantine / Donncha O'Callaghan (Lancer Evo 9 Gp N) 81m 34s. Junior - 1, Martin McCormack / Emmet Sherry (Citroen C2R2 Max) 46m 03s; 2 Craig Breen / Gareth Roberts (Fiesta R2) 46m 57s; 3, John Byrnes / Kenneth Sheil (Citroen C2R2) 49m 29s.