Birr & District Motor Club
The motorsport season is drawing to a close, but it has been a busy few weeks for some of the Birr and District Motor Club members.
For our autocross competitors this was the last round of the Irish Rallycross Championship with a double header. Some of our junior members were only starting their season with the first two rounds in the mini championship the same weekend.
Day one results were:
Juniors ‘A’ section: Cody Mahon 4th; Hugo Loonam 6th; Mark Keegan 8th.
Autocross section: Mark Kirwan 5th; James O'Keeffe 9th; Peter Whyte 13th; James Dalton 19th; Ronan Shanahan 23rd; Mike O'Connor 24th; Conor Leenane 27th; James Last 29th.
Day 2 results were:
Junior section: Cody Mahon was second in the Junior ‘A’ final; Mark Keegan was second in the Junior ‘B’ final.
Autocross section: Mark Kirwin was the overall winner with the quickest time on run 3.
Peter Whyte 12th; James O’Keeffe 13th & second in the 600 Class; Mike O’Connor 20th; James Dalton 21st; Ronan Shanahan 22nd & third in the 600 Class; James Last 28th; Connor Leenane 29th.
Congratulations to Mark Kirwin on his win, his third win out of the six rounds this year.
Awards: The National Rally Championship prize-giving took place recently in the Sheraton Hotel in Athlone.
Eoin Longworth collected the Clerk of the Course Award for the Tarmac Stages rally, which was based out of Garahy’s Garage, Birr back in April.
Aidan Bourke scooped second place in class 13. Aidan also managed to clinch first place in Class 13 in the Top Part West Coast Rally Championship, also second in class in the Sligo Pallets Border Rally Championship. This is a highly competitive class so a big well done to Aidan after a steady drive all year in all the Championships.
Owain Drought claimed second place in the Super Touring section at the Irish Touring Car Championship Awards held at the Ardboyne Hotel in Navan last weekend.
The Sligo Pallets Forest Rally Championship Awards took place recently and we had more great results from club members: 1st in Class 10 - Mike Geraghy & Iarla McCarthy; 2nd in Class 11R - Damien Brophy & Ger Buckley; Class 18: 1st - Walter Burke & Bobby Cooper; Class 4: 2nd - James Lowry & Shaun Forde; Top historic crew: Walter Burke & Bobby Cooper
Rally: Last weekend some of our club members headed to Killarney to help out and compete at the last rally of the year, the Killarney Historic rally.
Aidan Bourke and co-driver Pierce Jnr Doheny finished off their season in style with a hard earned class win. Club Chairperson Susan Smyth was navigating for Pat McDonagh in a M2 escort and they finished fifth in class.
The Roscrea crew of Eoghan & Cian Fogarty were leading their class and were up to 28th overall in their Toyota Corolla Twin until mechanical issues forced them to retired on stage six.
Turkey Chaser: The last Club event of the year takes place on Saturday, 28th December, the Turkey Chaser Autotest which takes place at Garahy’s Garage, Birr so make sure and come along for a look
AGM: Our Annual General Meeting took place on Thursday, 16th November and history was made when our first ever female chairperson was elected.
We would like to welcome Susan Smyth into her new role and we wish her the best of luck. Also, to our outgoing Chairperson David Forde we would like to thank him for all his hard work and dedication to the club for the last few years. Davey is taking a step back and is now the vice chairperson for the coming year.
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