Last weekend the Valvoline National Forestry Championship prizegiving took place in Clonmel. New Champion Owen Murphy (this was his second Forestry Championship title win) was on holiday and his father Gerry, who has done so much to help Owen`s rally career over the years, was on hand to collect the award. The reason Owen wasn`t there is that he never intended to contest the 2014 series and had booked his holiday quite some time ago! Desi Henry of course actually tied with Owen for total points. However Owen got the title on a tie break and Desi finished 2nd. Josh Moffett gave the Championship a real good go and was in the running to take victory but eventually finished 3rd, although he couldn`t make it down from Monaghan to Clonmel for the prizegiving. Desi Henry`s brother Niall was also at the Clonmel Park to enjoy the excellent dinner, and collect the top Class 5 GpN award.

Patsy Keenan and his wife Annabel flew across the Atlantic on the Saturday morning from their home in Atlanta to collect the 2nd place Class GpN award, and then back to Atlanta on the Sunday morning! Shane McGirr was the popular winner of the 5A Class best 2wd, with Mickey Conlon 2nd and Damian McGauran 3rd.

There was an announcement at the Prizegiving that Valvoline has committed to the series for a further 3 years. The schedule of rallies is going to change in 2015, and the opening round of the series is scheduled to be in South Donegal with a `3 by 2` format. Well-known and respected co-driver Johnny Baird will be Clerk of the Course and can be contacted at johnnybaird9@gmail.com.

Speakers at the prizegiving included Rallies Committee Chairman Ger Healy, as well as Motorsport Ireland President Joe Corcoran. Joe made a huge effort to be at the prizegiving as he was committed to also support a karting function earlier that evening in Cork City. As ever though, he felt it was important to be at the forestry prizegiving as well. Joe is usually a man of few, but well-chosen words. His message on Saturday night was fairly clear – that yes, there will be changes in 2015, to the forestry committee and the schedule of events. And yes, the forest rallies are difficult from an expense viewpoint, but still the only way to success is for everyone, the competitors and the clubs, to support the Forestry Committee and the events. In addition, an effort will be made to standardise the classes between the various championships, for the sake of clarity and simplicity.

Also last weekend there was a Lanes Rally run by the Magherafelt MC. In addition there was the Hall Rally near Blyton in Yorkshire, as well as the Grizedale Stages, where Paul Bird took victory. On the Lanes Rally, which was based at the Shepherds Rest outside Draperstown, Steven Ferguson/Milton McWilliams in their Class 1 Peugeot 106 had the narrowest of wins over Simon Woodside/Suz Graham (Class 2 Mazda MX-5). David Crothers/Barbara Kane were 3rd in their Mazda MX-5. The rally had 57 entries.

On the Hall Trophy Rally at an old RAF airfield near Blyton in Lincolnshire William Creighton took his Harry Brown prepared Citroen C1 to a narrow victory over English driver Charlie Barlow in his Micra. This capped an outstanding season for 16 year old William from Moira, although we associate him with his father Niall Creighton`s garage at Finaghy! The rally success last Saturday means William wins the UK F1000 Junior Rally Championship, to add to his Irish title. To crown what has been a marvellous year for young Creighton, he was voted the UK Young Rally Driver of the Year by a highly respected International panel including Mark Higgins. William, who is still at college (RBAI), flew to Cologne to the Professional Motor Sport World Expo Awards to collect his prize.

The third of last weekend`s rallies was the lovely Grizedale Stages in the English Lake District. Paul Bird got back on winning form and despite a spectator crashing into his Focus WRC on the road section to the final stage, was able to take a clear win. James O`Brien gave the forestry prizegiving in Clonmel a miss so that he could co-drive for Mick O`Brien`s son Daniel in his Focus WRC. The car hadn`t been out for a while so the brakes were a bit sticky and the suspension a little hard, so that, although a top ten result seemed a possibility, they eventually finished down about 18th. James chuckled when he recounted. “I think it was about 26 years ago since I was there, and that was with Austin MacHale over sheet ice during the RAC Rally. I seem to remember a spectator slipping over in front of us. I tell you what; MacHale wasn`t going back to see if he was OK. Couldn`t get stopped on the ice anyway! But what a lovely place, well worth the trip, brilliant stages, nowhere to draw breath!” Indeed, it is a fantastically nice place for a rally – and not so far from either Liverpool or Cairnryan.

Further to our `Late News` piece last week regarding the `R2` points on the now defunct British Rally Championship being transferred from Dean Raftery to Calvin Beattie, it would appear that this matter is far from settled. Also not so cast-iron was our story about the Jim Clark Rally not happening in 2015. There are mixed messages coming out of Berwickshire as to whether the rally can go ahead or not. It does seem definite though that there will be no British Rally Championship in 2015. However there are positive moves afoot from Raymond Moore who has been responsible for all the Citroen Championship initiatives in Britain and Ireland over recent years. Working closely with Citroen Racing in France, Raymond is very keen to get feedback on what competitors would wish to see in the line of competition in 2015. Raymond will have to move fairly quickly if he is to get something up and running and really needs at least 5 or 6 drivers to express an interest if he is to progress the venture. So if you have any interest in rallying your Citroen for a real prize fund in 2015, please e-mail Raymond Moore. His address is: raymond@citroenracing.co.uk

The three finalists for the Billy Coleman Award have been named – Dean Raftery (Galway), Josh Moffett (Monaghan) and Kevin Eves (Pettigo).
Still on the subject of the Billy Coleman Award. A former recipient, Keith Cronin, who also won the British Rally Championship three times, is to contest the Monte Carlo Rally in his recently acquired Citroen DS3R5. If Keith keeps his brain in gear, which no doubt he will, and has any sort of good fortune, he has the ability to score a fabulous result on `the Monte`, just about the most iconic rally in the world. He will certainly be in good company, with both Kris Meeke and Sebastian Loeb both driving for Citroen.

Looking towards this weekend, the fabulous Killarney Historic Stages Rally is on Saturday, while the Roger Albert Clark takes place over most of the weekend. The `RAC` rally starts from Sunderland and there are 6 stages on Friday evening. A lot of the action is in Kielder, not so much in Dalby this time, and then on to Southern Scotland. These are great forest stages, very challenging, fast, with the crews` map reading skills tested to the limit and beyond! Quite often there have been a few competitors from here made the trip over, but Seamus O`Connell seems to be the only one this time. Seamus is well seeded, at No. 5. There is no number one, so Seamus has Nick Elliott, Matthew Robinson and Matt Edwards ahead of him, all in Escorts. The first `non Ford` is Julian Reynolds at 7 in his Fiat 131 Abarth. The next non-Ford entry is Gregoire De Mevius at 11 in a Porsche 911 and then Steve Perez at 16 in his Lancia Stratos, complete with a new all singing and dancing engine – believed to be a 24 valve Ferrari derived unit. It would nearly be worth the trip to Newcastleton to hear that Amigos Tequila Flavoured Beer sponsored Stratos ripping through those ultra fast forests! Around 58 cars are entered for the rally.

Before setting off for the adventure, Seamus O`Connell, who has had a few podium finishes on the event, told us. “I`ll be using the wee red BDA again. It`s been in McGeehan`s workshop for a few weeks, so it should be ok. I always enjoy the rally, it is quite a challenge.” As there are no notes, a good navigator is essential, and this time Seamus has Andy Richardson on the maps. Andy co-drove Jimmy McRae to victory a few years ago.

In Killarney around 130 plus cars will tackle the 8 classic stages – twice over Molls Gap, Kilmackillogue, Caragh Lake and Gortnagane – a rally man`s dream of dreams! Newly crowned Clonakilty Blackpudding Tarmac Historic Champion, Denis Moynihan, with Ger Conway once again co-driving, heads the convoy over Molls Gap on Saturday morning. Behind Denis, at 2, is Welshman Tomas Davies, then Rob Smith, followed by former Irish National Champion (another Welshman) Melvyn Evans, the top four seeds all in Escorts. Andy Johnston, who was runner-up in the Tarmac Historic Championship this year, is at 5 in his Chevette HSR, with Welshman Gareth Lloyd rounding off the top six.

This Rentokil Initial backed event also has a strong `modified` section, with Wesley Patterson the top seed in his Escort. The emphasis however is on the Historic aspect. Indeed one of the prizes for the first Historic finisher is an all expenses paid entry on the Barbados Rally Carnival next summer.

Earlier this week we talked to Denis Moynihan, who now lives just outside Cork City, and has a heating and ventilation company there. Denis is originally from Millstreet, and has a true rallying pedigree. He commented about the rally, “We are ready to go. John (Moynihan) does all the car preparation for me, and I just step in and go. I know the car will be right as John worries about it even more than I do. It leaves me to concentrate on the business. I think the rally at this time of the year will be very challenging. We got a set of your notes as usual on Sunday and went for a run over the stages. The temperatures were down to just 1 and 2 degrees in places, the roads were cold and greasy, grip level will be low and patchy.”

The Gortnagane stage, which will almost certainly be run in darkness on the Saturday evening, will be a real test for everyone. In theory, Denis Moynihan should know the road well. Surprisingly, or maybe not when you think about it, he reckoned that he has hardly ever rallied it in the direction it is going this time. It has been done a few times that way, but not necessarily for the Historics. Denis thinks all the stages on this rally are just about as good as you can get. He does admit to knowing stages such as Molls Gap exceedingly well. But he also admitted that there was hardly a corner on Molls that he couldn`t put a famous name to who had crashed there. Denis, a man with his feet firmly on the ground, reckons that on a cold dark Saturday December morning, running first on the road in his diminutive, admittedly very special, Mk1 Escort, that those names, those mishaps, could be preying on his mind!