Aaron O Regan reprised his role as CoC of the Cork Motor Club’s Startrek Night Navigation event again this year, with Patrick O Sullivan & Nial Murphy acting as Deputy & Assistant. The event, which was a counting round of both the National & Munster Navigation Championships, was run over approx. 80 miles, with Whitechurch Community Centre , last used 7 years ago, as the event HQ. There were 25 entries and 23 starters on the night, making the field one of the largest seen on a Cork Nav event in some years, this despite the loss of at least 2 entries due to the clash with the Donegal Harvest Rally.
Scrutiny passed off without problems, and the navigators were presented with an Initial Card containing a significant number of gates, NGs & unmarked roads and which did require the plotting of the SRS junction by junction using map references, bringing the total to well over 50 plots, but with generous plotting time and an absence or errors in the handouts, all crews were well ready for the shorter Card 2 which was again plotted without queries. This Main Route card contained 46 points, describing a route around various Farm Yards , twisty and technical tar roads and forestry sections. The Drivers briefing took place as usual, but included a specific caution from the CoC that many of the farm & forest tracks, while solid underneath, were very slippery, and needed to be treated with caution, especially when breaking.
Following a run-out, the competitive action started just east of Carrignaver, then heading north west towards Burnfort before heading eastwards through the Nagles Forestry before turning south to Whitechurch again to finish the night .
For some, the penalties started to come as soon as TP3! The first plot and bash was given at TP2 in the form of a diagram scaled showing TP3 and an unmarked road to same, accurate measuring from the diagram was the key to getting this correct as when they entered the yard the crews were looking for a lane to the right to get the correct approach. Defending National Champions Andy Mackarel & Greg Shinnors were the first top crew to drop marks here , losing significant time turning in one slot too soon into a shed entrance which they had difficulty getting out of. The same fate befell some of the later cars, but Andy & Greg’s time loss at this early point meant that, despite a sterling performance for the rest of the night, they were already out of contention for the overall award.
At TP5 crews found it hard to keep to time as the longish approach Farm lane was very twisty windy and very challenging for driver & navigator, not least as farmer had been spreading slurry that Saturday morning so made it quite mucky! All crews lost time here, and while the Monaghan pairing of Shane Dalton & Ryan Treanor alone lost a single mark, 2minute+ losses were common, and former National Champions Michael O Connor ( Bones) & Denis O Donovan in their first outing as team were the unluckiest of the top crews here as they missed a right turn and went into a field losing 6 minutes.
It was definitely a testing start to the night, but the pressure continued in a farmyard which included TPs 6 & 10 with 2 vias sandwiched between and over a maze of lanes and sheds which has been provided by diagram on route card 1 for the unmarked roads, with route card 2 showing the TPs/Vias all in a very confined area so, once again, crews needed to be very accurate not least as one of the “Roads” was thru’ a cattle shed! However, possibly due to the clarity of the diagrams, most crews negotiated this section with few or no penalties, but an exception was Jack Long & Oisin Sherlock who managed to miss V8 & V9, putting them out of contention for overall and class trophies.
On Leaving TP10 crews had a mixture of tight twisty roads and forestry ahead of them to get to TP16 which involving a lot of steering and navigating ,before the crews could take a breather at TP17 for the first time recovery. The niceeties were not to last for long though, as crews were heading into the woods where it was going to challenge both driver and navigator!
On leaving TP17 they had a full section of forestry to navigate and drive all the way to TP24, with a lot of challenging loose surface mossy grassy lanes. Nonetheless, there was 4 cars to clear the second card up to C26, – Pakie Duffy & Evan Hughes, Michael O Connor( Bones ) & Denis O Donovan , Shane Dalton & Ryan Treanor and Pasty McDonagh & Patrick Corcoran with James Fitzgerald & Ken Carmody dropping 1 mark @ TP21, Andy Mackarel & Greg Shinnors dropping 2 on this section of time points.
At C26 it was very tight at the top with Shane Dalton & Ryan Treanor out the front on 1 , 2nd was the Cork pairing of Jame Fitzgerald & Ken Carmody on 2 , Duffy & Hughes along with McDonagh & Corcoran nipping at their heels on 3 marks . 5th was the Cork/Monaghan Pairing of Owen Murphy & Shane Maguire on 4 marks , 6th was Mackarel & Shinnors on 6, followed by O’Connor/O’Donovan on 7, meaning that only 6 minutes covered the top 7!.
In the crews down the field there was some standout performances as well up this point. The West Cork pairing of David Beamish & Chris Brady on 13 Marks in their Ford Focus proving you don’t need 4wd machinery to be in contention on a Night Navigation, and Tony O Keeffe & Derek O Donoghue on 15 marks really showing their previous year in the beginners class was well put down and that they were up for the challenge this year. The real standout however was the crew of Brian Duggan & Susan Symth in the beginner class, Susan was recently one of the people who attended the CMC navigation classes and the pair were on an outstanding 17 marks with Susan doing her very first night navigation!
Another crew doing very well was the Monaghan pairing of Martin Swinburne & Grethen Swinburne on 17 marks only loosing 2 marks in the forestry from TP17-C25. Unfortunately they were one of the “other” crews who had got a wrong app into TP3 earlier in the night putting them out of top contention.
The crews had a Speed Regulation Section at TP27 to TP29 and was set at 50kph using plots provided on Route Card 1 (as opposed to the usual tulip diagrams). Most of the top crews again didn’t have any hassle with this section, but Duffy & Hughes unfortunately dropped 6 marks which put them out of contention for top honours .
The next Plot & Bash was given out at TP29 for TP30 in the form of a herringbone diagram. Again all the crews dropped marks on this section as they had to take time with measuring and taking the correct slots, especially when approaching TP30 – they could see the timepoint coming down the lane , but there was a sting in the tail as there was a lane to the left hand side just before the time point , that the crews has to take to get the correct approach , It took navigators patience and having faith in there trip meter to get the correct direction to this Time Point !
Once leaving TP30, the route again went into the forestry for three time points which hadn’t been used before but again there was a lot of driving in this section so drivers had to be careful to watch out for slippy sections and contend with some very loose surface in places.
The last real challenge for crews was the last Plot and Bash starting at TP38 where they were given a small section of an unmarked area on route card 2 and being told further details to be advised when they got to this point. The plot and bash consisted of 4 points – 2 Vias & 2 TPs, and to say crews were heading into a farm maze was probably an understatement! The plot and bash again was given out in a diagram scaled format, while the Approach & Departures were given on Route Card 2. The navigators that spotted this in the hall had a significant advantage, but some navigators had to root through their Bags for this information.
On leaving TP38, getting to V39 was fairly straightforward heading out of farm yard. The fun & head scratching really started from this point, as from leaving V39 to get to V40 they had to go into a shed. A lot of crews were uncertain about taking this entrance, with some people thinking “He would never bring us in here!“, but yes he did!! Once entering the shed, they came out the other side faced with silage pit and the farmer had kindly placed a few silage bales both sides but had left enough room for a car to head left and into a home made chicane.
After coming out of the chicane crews were looking for a left … but yet again it looked like another shed, which put even more doubt into navigators decision making! If they missed this slot and turned left after they would have gone into TP41, so quick decisions had to be made. After getting to V40, another quick swing around the same chicane was required to get to TP41,leaving just one final Time Point to be found on the night.
When leaving TP41, the now weary crews had to turn left and access the shed once more by the same entrance as used for getting access to V40 & V41 but turning right this time coming out of the chicane and heading out a real mucky farmers lane to TP42 .
It would be safe to say the crews were glad to see Control 43 at this stage and say “Thank …..!” and head back to C44 which was back in Whitechurch Community Centre where crews had set out from .
Back to HQ where both drive and navigator deserved a well earned rest ! Results were finalised without any fuss, a credit to the Marshals, Results Team and the Competitor’s for a great evening.
After all the madness, the crew to come out on top of the leader board was Monaghan pairing of Shane Dalton & Ryan Treanor, only losing 2 marks on the last plot and bash to finish up on an incredible 6 marks! This crew really showed outstanding driving and navigating skills to finish the 80 miles on 6 marks. 2nd Overall and 1st in Semi Expert was Patsy McDonagh & Patrick Corcoran losing 3 marks on the final card and finishing up on 8 marks.
The crew to loose out the most on this section was James Fitzgerald & Ken Carmody, coming into the last section they were positioned 2nd overall but unfortunately they ended up losing 7 marks here making a total of 10 marks and ultimately finishing in 3rd overall and 2nd in expert class. 4th Overall and 3rd in expert class were the reigning National Championship crew of Andy Markarel & Greg Shinnors losing 4 marks in the farm maze to finish up on 10 as well .
Top Semi Expert Crew was the Cavan/Cork Pairing of Brian Oakes & Ruaidhri Nash finishing up on 69 Marks , 2nd in class was David Beamish & Chris Brady on 146 Marks. They had been doing well on the first & second card and were well in contention, but a 50 marks loss and missing 3 time points in the last plot and bash put a damper on what could have been a great result for the West Cork pairing!
In the Novice class, 1st in Class and 8th Overall were Martin Swinburne & Gretchen Swinburne, finishing up 40 marks which was a great result for the Monaghan pairing , 2nd was the Leap Father & Son crew of James French & Ciaran French on 43, only losing 4 marks on the last plot and bash while 3rd was Derek O Donoghue & Tony O Keeffe on 43, just losing the class win by missing TP30 , but a really great showing for this crew on there 2nd year of navigation.
Finally onto the beginners class and it was great to see 5 crews out competing, and as a Club it was really great to see that 3 of crews were people who had attended the CMC Navigation classes hosted in previous weeks and had seen a massive response across its three evenings.
1St in beginners and a real stand out from the event results was Brian Duggan & Susan Symth, on her very first night nav they finished up 46 marks and 11th overall. Definitely a crew to be watched in the coming season to see how they progress! 2nd in class was another CMC class participant David Forde & Becky Hollinshead. Finally 3rd in class was James Dunphy & Stephen Mackey.
All points along the route, including a significant number of Stops, were marshaled. Even the weather was very kind to us with not a drop of rain and clear sky’s all night. All in all, it was an excellent event. A big thank you to all the marshals that turned out, we had huge numbers and without these people the night wouldn’t have ran so smooth. It was great to see such a strong entry – We haven’t had such numbers in a Cork event for a very long time and really shows that Night Navigation’s aren’t fading, if anything we would like to think the sport is on the up .
The results also showed the only 2 cars did not make the finish – the Expert crews of Trevor O’Callaghan/Patrick O’Leary and Long/Sherlock – both fell foul of the slippery lanes that the CoC had warned of, with both sliding into drains, both at low speeds and with minimal damage, but both were well and truly stuck. However, everyone else, including all novices & beginners, did finish.
A further feature of the results that the top 7 cars had 14 or under penalties, and that there were 3 “Furthest cleanest” tie breaks required.
Overall, the results were an indication both of the competitors abilities and of the organisers success in getting the route & timing tight enough to be competitive but not so difficult as to make it too difficult or daunting for beginners
COC Aaron O Regan would in particular like to thank to team he had with him , Nial Murphy & Patrick O Sullivan were the real standout as the efforts they had put in to make such a event , but to make a great event , you need a great Team!
Along with Sean Daly (Chief Marshal), Niall O’Keeffe & Jerry Hynes, (Not to mention Aaron himself), all did an outstanding job in there roles on the night and all their efforts before the event.
With such a caliber of an event and hopefully we can all look at this and see what we can and need to do to keep this part of our sport beating .
Until next time thank you all .
RESULTS:
1st- Shane Dalton Ryan Treanor Impreza Expert 6 Marks
2ndPatsy McDonagh Patrick Corcoran Impreza Expert 8 Marks
3rdJames Fitzgerald Ken Carmody Impreza Expert 10 Marks
4thAndy Mackarel Greg Shinnors Impreza Expert 10 Marks
5thOwen Murphy Shane Maguire Impreza Expert 12 Marks
6thMichael O’Connor Denis O’Donovan Impreza Expert 12 Marks
7thPakie Duffy Evin Hughes Impreza Expert 14 Marks
8thMartin Swinburne Gretchen Swinburne Impreza Novice 40 Marks
9thJames French Ciaran French Forester Novice 43 Marks
10thTony O’Keeffe Derek O’Donoghue Honda Civic Novice 43 Marks