DMC Want Snowdrops – Not Raindrops!

The 2017 night navigation rally season got under way with the Erne Safari rally at Irvinestown on Friday night and competitors had to cope with rain all night.  A great turnout by modern standards, 28 crews, tackled ten competitive sections in the Trillick and Ballinamallard areas, with Irvinestown as a start and finish base.

Enniskillen Motor Club had selected Benny Grainger and David Howard as the first car away in their classic Mini Cooper S, and back at the finish they were in first place overall having completed the route with only 8 marks lost.

The biggest class of the night was the Beginner Class, with 20 crews signed up for this easier category, and it was the Deazleys, Gareth and Raymond, who came out winners for the second year in a row.  Time to move up a class guys!

Loughgall crew John and Jonathan Henderson were third overall in their Nissan Micra, while Stewartstown’s Sean Devlin was navigated by Davy Johnston into seventh place.

Closer to home, next Friday night, 10th March, Dungannon Motor Club will hold their Hobson Electronics Snowdrop Navigation Rally.  Starting at 8:30pm from the Dungannon Rugby Club, the field made up mostly of beginners will tackle a 40 mile route in the Dungannon, Ballygawley, Cappagh area.  The graduates from the 2017 Rally School will have a class all to themselves, so it will be a great test to see who was paying attention in class!

Clerk of the Course, Hayes Robinson, promises a fun night in the Tyrone lanes, testing map-reading skills as well as good time-keeping.  For this sport it is not necessary to have a special car, and most competitors will use ordinary, everyday vehicles.

The event finishes back at the Dungannon Rugby Club for supper and results, and anyone interested in helping out by staffing a check-point should come along to the Rugby Club for 7:30pm.  Full report next week.