Irish Hillclimb And Sprint Championship

[paulwarrior]

Launch of the 2010 Connaught competition engines Irish Hillclimb and Sprint Championship 2010

The start of the 2010 championship year is getting closer and closer, and with this in mind the Hillclimb committee would like to invite anyone with an interest in Motorsport and hillclimbing to the launch of the 2010 Connaught Competition Engines Irish Hillclimb and Sprint Championship. This Launch will be held at the Midway Maldron Hotel in Portlaoise on March 7th at 2pm. Press photograghers and journalists will be invited to attend. Some of the competing cars will also be present representing all types of competion car eligable for Hillclimbing. Come along for the view and a chat. Anyone with an interest in competing or spectating on Irelands fastest motorsport is welcome to chat with competitors and get up close to the machinery that will be used on 14 rounds of hillclimbs all over the country in 2010.



Pre-Season Forum 2010

The latest news for Irish hillclimbers is that the pre season forum for competitors is taking place on March 7th in the Midway Maldron Hotel in portlaoise. All competitors are invited to attend both existing and also new competitors to the sport.
The current hillclimb committee are currently working on a number of issues before the season gets up and running with a view to really improve our sport for both competitors and hillclimb enthusiasts nationwide.
The biggest news is that the proposed competitor marshalling initiative has been shelved for this year as a number of other routes to improve marshalling are investigated.
There will also be an announcement regarding the new inter-provincal cup scheme as proposed by Rory Stephens at the last forum.
Competitor views and ideas to improve the sport and its profile will be welcomed.

[paulwarrior]

Connaught Competion Engines Hillclimb and Sprint Championship Blasts off!

Last weekend saw the start of the Connaught Competition engines Irish Hillclimb And Sprint Championship in Ballyvaughen in county Clare. The Clare motor club ran a 2 day event in sometimes difficult conditions with wind and rain making the courses very tricky to drive.
The overall battle was won both days by Dublins Simon McKinley, beating Limericks Paul O'Connell who was debuting his Pilbeam mp58 hillclimb car having decided to leave his trusty delta at home for this one. Prizegiving on Saturday night in Lougues Hotel in Ballyvaughen was a fun night for all involved with the inevitable banter between competitors!
The second day brought slightly drier conditions and the Scalp hillclimb is a favourite with all drivers. The extended 1.5 mile course was covered by the top 2 of McKinley and O'Connell in just over a stunning 59 seconds. Thats an average speed of 90 mph from a standing start over some very demanding roads winding their way through the burren landscape. To put that into further context, they top 2 finished a staggering 10 seconds ahead of therest of the field, an unheard of statistic in hillclimbing.
Full results to be available on Motorsport Irelands website soon.
Setanta sports also sent down a reporter to film the weekend and that show was aired on Monday at 5, 7 and 10 on Setanta Ireland on the Live sports show. They should be commended for showing such support for our championship and if anyone wants to contact them to thank them and see if they will do some more please send an e-mail to them on their website.

After a dramatic start to the season, things are looking good for Hillclimbers.
The galway Hillclimb weekend is next on april 24th and 25th. Further information available at www.irishhillclimb.com

[paulwarrior]

This coming weekend see’s the Connaught Competition Engines Hillclimb and Sprint championship returning to the picturesque village of Ballyvaughan Co Clare. Galway Motor club have been working very hard to ensure that the weekend will run smoothly.

With the first round of the championship done and dusted, the championship is moving along in earnest. What better test for drivers and machines than another weekend hillclimbing in Co Clare!

The Saturday hill is Ballyryan again. For those of you that have not driven it, it is situated on the coast road about 5 km south of the village of Fanore. This hill has proven quite popular and features some twisty sections at the start, a long straight and a tricky finish. The record is held by Sylvie Mullins in the Gould Judd at 43.99 seconds and will take some effort to be beaten.

Sunday’s hill is the big one, the famous and fearsome Ballyallaban hill. 2.2 miles of fast bumpy straights, jumps and corners meandering through the unforgiving Burren Landscape. There are plenty of rocks lying in wait for the unsuspecting driver. The record here is a staggering 96.17 seconds set by local ace Sylvie Mullins in his Gould Judd. This will be quite difficult to better but the leading drivers this year are going to do their best to break it.
3 time champion Paul O'Connell says of Ballyallaban " its the most challenging hill of the year, the last real balls-out hill left. You've got to commit to every single corner and be aware that it is so tough on a car that every run might be your last of the day." When asked what are the chances of beating the record set by Mullins in his 4.0 litre Gould Judd he says "given the disparity of horsepower between sylvie's 600+ and my 360hp hart you'd imagine i've no chance. But i've never given up yet, and if i can get it all right on the day who knows what can happen!"

Regs for the Galway Hillclimb Weekend – April 24th & 25th are now available on www.irishhillclimb.com

[paulwarrior]

Ballyvaughen Erupts!

The Connaught Competition Engines 2010 Hillclimb championship has really started to erupt! Like our Icelandic friends and their volcano it shows no signs of stopping at least untill september anyway!
After the dust has settled on a record breaking weekend there is quite a story to tell.

Saturday in Ballyryan threatened rain but never really delivered on that promise. The early pace setters were Simon McKinley in the Lant rt2, Sylvie Mullins in his Gould Judd and slightly furher back Paul O'Connell in his newly acquired Pilbeam Hart. Mullins and McKinley battled hard all day and eventually ended the day separated by the smallest of margins with mullins posting a time of 43.40 seconds a new hill record and a mere hundreth of a second ahead of McKinley who finished on 43.41. O'Connell battled all day but never recovered from his slow start and despite improving on every run finished 0.5 seconds behind the leader. Was he rueing the decision to leave his trusty Delta at home?
Seamus Morris is really getting to grips with driving his new Pilbeam and again improved his time to finish 4th overall.
%th overall and probably the suprise result of the weekend was Galways Eanna Carrol in his giant killing Turbo Civic. The little blue honda was absolutely flying all day and shamed a lot of single seaters! Brendan Keane survived some handling problems and despite a broken diffuser finished just 0.02 behing Carroll. Joe Courtney in his Oms Hornet was buzzing up through the field and finished a highly credible 7th Overall on his first visit to Ballyryan in a single seater. Rory "Grandad" Stephens started a weekend to forget with a puncture halfway up the hill and also gear selection problems that saw him restricted to just one run all day. Trevor Cullen in the vauxhall engined G3 escort put in his now customary flawless drive to drift his way to 9th overall. Dermot "swollen" Nolan rounded out the top ten in his Reynard Gm 873 on a 54.66.
Class winners for the day were as follows.
Ray Cunningham (Mini) 55.52s, John Bradley (Corsa) 63.46s,
Stephen Gillis (Westfield SEI-GM) 55.15s, Eanna Carroll, Matt Dunne (MG
Midget) 48.02s (net), Enda Byrne (Leastone FV) 56.95s, Joe Courtney, Simon
McKinley, Shane Donohue (Escort) 64.29s, Sam Smyth (Escort) 55.98s.

Sunday and the much anticipated annual pillgrimage to Ballyalaban started explosively. Simon McKinley set out on his first run and blew away the established Hill record of 96.17 seconds, with an amazing opening high 95 second run. Sylvie Mullins who had decided to sit the morning out with clutch problems suddenly found himself in a battle to get his car ready to uphold local honour and missed the practice and first runs. O'Connell put in a personal best of 97 seconds, 4 seconds quicker than his fastest time last year in his Delta. The battle continued with Mckinley keeping the pressure on with another faster low 95 second run, O'Connell reponded with a low 96 second run. On the third and last run of the day McKinley again went quicker putting in a time of 95.02 seconds. Mullins charged up the hill in the 600hp judd but failed to improve his time from last year at 98.20 seconds. O'Connell put in one final effort and managed to knock over a second off his time again to finish on 95.03 seconds. He had been victorious in these situations before but just could not do enough. Once again the victory went down to the smallest of margins in this epic encounter.
Seamus Morris once again got valuable mileage in his Pilbeam Mp62 and showed steady improvement to finish 4th overall.
Next was Dublin's Brendan Keane in his Swallow single seater celebrating his first return to Ballyallaban in 5 years with 5th overall. Rory Stephens compounded his problems on saturday with an off on his 2nd run. Despite the car sustaining some damage Rory emerged relatively unscathed and was sent to Ennis Hospital as a precaution. From talking to him last night he is home in Dublin and in good spirits. Thanks to the Medical staff and marshalls on the day. Eanna Carroll was again mixing it with the big boys in his Turbo Honda Civic and put in a fantastic time of 133.36 to finish just one hundreth ahead of Alan Kessie in his Gryphon. Thomas Corey in the BCoogar rover v8 got the better of Dermot Nolan in his Reynard to round out the top ten.

Class winners:
Ray Cunningham (Mini) 119.28s, Tommy Murphy (Civic) 122.36s,
Stephen Gillis (Westfield SEI-GM) 118.63s, Rory Stephens, Matt Dunne (MG
Midget) 101.80s (net), Enda Byrne (Leastone FV) 124.74s, Siobhan McCann
(Ray ZX11) 121.02s, Paul O'Connell, Patrick Horan (Nova) 120.96s, Peter
Cummins (Darrian T90) 117.90s.

[paulwarrior]

What a weekend of scorching action in Wexford. The fine weather that was promised came in abundance and with temperatures in the high 20’s all weekend the heat was most certainly on for rounds 5 and 6 of the Connaught Competition Engines Hillclimb and sprint championship 2010.
The Saturday hillclimb was a new hill in Duncannon. This challenging course proved tricky and bumpy but quite rewarding to drive. With the heat, the grip levels suffered as the tar began to melt later in the day but 4 runs were completed. Dublin’s Simon McKinley came out on top on the bumpy hill setting some great times in the first and second run driving the Connaught Warrior engined Lant. He chose to forego any more running afterwards when the tar began to melt. Paul O’Connell finished second, after a high speed spin on the second corner in his Pilbeam. He missed his 3rd run after hitting the chicane and needed his fourth run to finish within 0.58 of the leader. Seamus Morris was 3rd in his beautiful Pilbeam Mp62. He’s really settling into single seater life and is getting quicker and quicker. Brendan Keane appeared on Saturday unexpectedly and true to form hit the pace straight away. He did well but could not find an elusive second to catch Morris. David James returned to hillclimb action with a mighty rallycross Mitsubishi Evo 6 with upwards of 600bhp this mighty beast required all David’s legendary sideways skill to tame and he brought it home a creditable 5th overall. John Byrne in the Leastone formula 5 finished just over a second behind David in 6th overall. Much more to come from John when he returns with his Jedi hopefully for Dungarvan. Eanna Carroll continued his giant killing performances and finished 7th overall in the over 400 Bhp turbo fwd Honda Civic. Wexford’s own version of Sebastian Vettel, Brendan Harpur finished just behind Carroll. After some confusion over turning left or right at the junction he improved his times steadily to end up 7th in the 1.8 engined Delta. Stephen Gillis was snapping at Brendan’s heels and just 0.26 seconds separated the two. John Mahon in his Dj hayabusa revved his way to 10th overall!
1 Simon McKinley (Lant RT2) 46.92s,
2 Paul O’Connell (Pilbeam MP58 Hart) 47.50s,
3 Seamus Morris (Pilbeam MP62-Vauxhall) 50.74s,
4 Brendan Keane (Swallow DR14 F3) 51.71s,
5 David James (Lancer Evo 6) 52.10s,
6 John Byrne (Leastone F5) 53.60s,
7 Eanna Carroll (Civic Turbo) 54.78s,
8 Brendan Harpur (Delta T81 Ford) 55.00s,
9 Stephen Gillis (Westfield SEI-GM) 55.26s,
10 John Mahon (DJ-Hayabusa) 56.84s.
Class Winners.
Ray Cunningham (Mini) 58.76s, Niall Whitty (Corolla) 62.78s, Stephen Gillis, Eanna Carroll, John Farrell (Escort) 45.52s (net), Laura Eustace (Sheane VW) 70.46s, John Byrne, Paul O’Connell, Ken Treacy (Peugeot 206) 60.80s, Seamus O’Grady (Escort) 58.59s.
Sunday saw more of the same roasting weather. After some rehydrating on Saturday night at the prize giving the action started after mass on Sunday. With scorching hot weather there were some safety concerns about the tar on the first corner causing a delay as sand was applied after the first run. McKinley had opted to sit this one out saving his car for a trip to France next weekend. So it was down to Paul O’Connell to deliver and he duly did with a time of 44.81 and new hill record. The big Pilbeam Mp58 proving quite adept at fitting through the narrow chicane! He was followed closely by Seamus Morris in his Pilbeam Mp62 all day but David James in his Rallycross Evo hit the pace in a big way and edged him out to claim 2nd overall on a time of 48.22 and Morris on 48.31! A slightly bad start on his last run costing Seamus dearly. Joe Courtney returned in his Oms Hornet to finish 4th overall his best performance to date just under a second behind Seamus Morris. John Byrne edged out Brendan Harpur to finish 5th, pushing Harpur down to 6th. After the banter of the previous day Brendan was delighted there were no junctions on the hill! Eanna Carroll continues to defy logic in his turbo civic finishing 7th overall. The little blue civic is fast becoming a favourite on the hills. Stephen Gillis in his Westfield was just behind by 0.20 Secs in 8th overall. Denis Hogan was 9th overall in his BMW M3 as he continues his ever improving run of finishes putting the pressure on Carroll. Ray Cunningham in his mini rounds out the top 10 despite only doing one run on the day.
All credit to Wexford Motor club for running a successful event despite a myriad of unforeseeable problems on both days. Best of luck to those competitors that are taking a trip to France next week.
1 Paul O’Connell (Pilbeam MP58 Hart) 44.81s, (Hill record),
2 David James (Lancer Evo 6) 48.22s,
3 Seamus Morris (Pilbeam MP62-Vauxhall) 48.31s,
4 Joe Courtney (OMS-Suzuki) 49.29s,
5 John Byrne (Leastone F5) 51.35s,
6 Brendan Harpur (Delta T81 Ford) 51.54s,
7 Eanna Carroll (Civic Turbo) 52.57s,
8 Stephen Gillis (Westfield SEI-GM) 52.78s,
9 Denis Hogan (BMW M3) 53.29s,
10 Ray Cunningham (Mini) 53.39s.
Class winners:
Ray Cunningham, John Bradley (Corsa) 58.34s, Stephen Gillis, Eanna Carroll, John Farrell (Escort) 41.95 (net), Laura Eustace (Sheane VW) 64.12s, Joe Courtney, David James, Ken Treacy (Peugeot 206) 56.96s, Johnny Murphy (Escort) 53.92s.


Full results are available in the Calendar and Results Section.

Irish Hillclimb & Sprint TV by: Vantage Point Video

All images supplied by Onsite Event Photography