ALMC Stages Rally 2012 Kicks Off

Entries for the 2012 ALMC Stages Rally which takes place on Sunday 15th July are now open with full regulations for the event available from the club. This year’s stages rally will return to its base at the City North Hotel and for the third year is a counting round of the highly popular Get Connected REIS UK Asphalt Rally Championship and the Loughran Signs Midlands East Rally Championship. The rally will feature nine stages located in Counties Meath and Louth and will see competitors take in a generous 160 of competitive stage kilometres and will for the first time see the event centralised at the City North Hotel with scrutiny parc ferme and service based at the venue on the rally weekend.

Darren Gass Winner of the 2011 ALMC Stages Rally

In an effort to encourage the many rally competitors based around the country the club have also introduced a prize draw based on the starters list of one hundred or more main field with one lucky competitor winning a cash prize of €1000 and a €350 prize for Juniors / historic entries over a minimum of 20 entries. "Enquiries about the rally have already started to flood in and we are expecting a larger number of crews to travel from the UK due to the increased interest in the championship this year and this will be coupled with a strong local entry. The event draw will help to incentivise competitors to enter and the stage distance and low entry fee make our event good value for money" said Noel Devlin COC at the launch of the event regulations.

The stages rally will feature classes for Historic and Junior competitors with them competing on the six stages of the rally and there will be additional prizes on offer for the winner of the MkII and an inaugural Honda Challenge. The club are mindful of the difficult economic times and are therefore providing support for competitors by allowing them to pay the entry fee on a stage payments basis, details of which can be found on the dedicated stages website www.almcstagesrally.com, there are several methods for submitting entries including the online entry system, details of which and a link to the electronic version can be found on the stages website or via the club website at www.almc.ie where regulations are also available for download. The event is being billed by the club as an "event not to be missed"

Former ALMC club member Donal Crooke has spread his wings and from his Canadian base has taken the US rallying stage by storm. Donal who left the Emerald Isle a little over two years ago to work for Blackberry in Canada, he took his newly found passion for rallying with him and on arrival on Canadian shores acquired a Honda Civic VTEC shell and started to rebuild the car in preparation for rally New York, he even purchased parts for the car in Ireland and had them sent over from Murray Motorsport and ABR.

Honda Civic Shell During Preparations & Donal's Finished CarRally Car at the Start of the New York Rally

Donal used his new Civic to great effect and put many regular US competitors to shame in the process taking a string of awards, Donal commented via is Facebook page following the rally. "Today was a day a childhood dream came true :) Got to spray the Champagne at the rally end - Winners of Rally New York 2wd in a Honda Civic - Donal Crooke & Noel Joyce! :) 1st overall in the 2 day rally (2wd), 1st overall in the Saturday rally (2wd) and 1st overall in the Sunday rally (2wd) and 8th Overall - delighted!!! All the hard work paid off - thanks so much to our service crew, Brandon Nelson, Jeff Lehmann and Dave Heavey (flown in from Jordan!) And to all at Rally New York for a fantastic event!" Congratulations to Donal and his crew on a fantastic performance on the rally and we look forward to hearing more about their exploits across the Atlantic in the coming months and while Ireland has lost a rallying talent to foreign lands it is great that a former member of the club is doing us proud.

It was a busy weekend in Motorsport with ALMC members taking part in various events around the country whilst others manned the ditches to leand their support by way of marshalling at the Monaghan Stages rally. A number of club members made the trip up North for the Mercedes Benz Truck & Van (NI) Lanes Rally to take on 25 tests in an Enduarnce Trial style event. Club member and expert navigator William Kelly took the hot seat along side Piers MacFheorais in his Mazda MX5 for the event with the crew winning class 3 in the event finishing over 60 clear of their nearest rivals Brian Crawford and David Meeke. The strong result not only won them the class but had them finish 5th overall which looking at the entry was an exceptional performance, well done William. The only all ALMC crew on the event was that of Ted and Karen Gaffney who lined out in their familiar and trusty VW Golf which was restored to full health following the TDC Enduro three weeks previous. Ted and Karen put in a strong performance to finish the event 15th overall and 7th in class 4, a class which is always very competitive with Eamonn Byrne taking the overall win in the class.

Ted & Karen Gaffney in Action in their VW Golf

Karl O'Donoghue in his Rover 200 was also competing in class 4 and had ALMC member Padraig Farrell calling the instructions Padraig and Karl brought the Rover home 22nd overall and 12th in class 4. Well done to all the ALMC crews that took part in the event and we look forward to seeing you competing again soon.

ALMC's Stephen Cullen finished a credible eleventh overall on the weekend's Moonraker Forestry rally in Cork the third round of the Valvoline Irish Forestry championship. Stephen drove very well throughout the course of the days tricky forestry stages to bring his Group N Subaru to cross the finish ramp just outside the top ten. Club member Gary Emmett who's Evolution Motorsport team run the car for Stephen mentioned at the end of the event that Stephen had performed well and had made some changes to the cars setup through the course of the days stages that really helped him to finish strongly.

Meanwhile another of the clubs rising stars Ian Downey in his Corsa had a series of mechanical problems with his car on this his third outing in this years forecstry championship junior class. With two wins from the same number of starts Ian was out to score a hatrick of wins and his early pace was once again evident as he finished the first stage over three seconds quicker than his nearest rival only to strike trouble on SS2 when pump in the full tank dislodged itself following a heavy landing and sidelining the young Dubliner and ending his charge. We look forward to seeing him and Stephen competing again on the next round of the championship, well done lads.

Here are the Results and the Award Winners  from today's Easter Bunny MVAT, based at Puddenhill Activity Centre.

Full Test Results   Awards List

On behalf of Martin and John Devine, a huge thank you to everyone that helped on the event, and to the staff of Pudden Hill Centre for the use of their venue!

Some photos from the Autotest today!

Andy Hennessy & Peter Murphy in Action

This weekends TDC Endurance Trial will feature a host of ALMC Club members in action as they take to the tests in their Endurance Trial cars against a strong entry. The event which takes place on Saturday with headquarters at the Ramada Hotel, Bray is the second Endurance Trial to take place this year and follows the ALMC event which kicked off the season earlier in February. The event has attracted crews from far and wide with many of the entries from competitors trying Endurance Trials for the first time. The club will be very well represented with members spread across the entry, the third car off the line driven by Brian Murphy has the first club member on board in the form of William Kelly who is a regular codriver on Trial events and stage rallies. The next up is the first all ALMC crew of Ted and Karen Gaffney in their Golf GTi, they missed the club event in February due to a family bereavement so they are keen to get going on the tests for their first Endurance event of the year. ALMC's Joe Downey is back in the hot seat alongside Patricia Denning, the pairing proving very competitive following a strong finish on their last outing together, Martin Devine who is CoC for the Bunny Run on Easter Sunday is taking a break from preparations to field his Toyota Starlet on the TDC event. Martin will be codriven for the first time by Stephen Cullen's regular pacenote caller Seamus O'Grady, Martin managed to book Seamus for the event before Stephen had decided he was going to have a go at an Endurance Trial.

ALMC's Martin Devine in Action in his Starlet...Nice Shades!

Martin leads out a group of club members all running together with his Starlet followed by Noel Devlin and Deirdre Gallagher in their Autostation backed ex-works Skoda Felicia, they will be hoping for a more trouble free run on this event having experienced some problems on their last outing. Gary Emmett and Alan Binley team up again and will take on the TDC event in their newly acquired MG ZR, with the crew having been bitten by the Enduro bug. Gary & Alan are followed by Greg Starr and Shane Cody in their class 1 Honda Civic, the pairing enjoyed a very successful day out on the recent trial and will be out to continue that form on Saturday.  Stephen Cullen who we are more used to seeing at the wheel of his GpN machine has purchased a Ford Ka for the event and has had a team of Evoloution Motorsport mechanics working on it over the past week in preparation for the event this will be Stephens first time on a Trial event his rallying experience is sure to help him in his quest for a good result. Brendan O'Rourke has once again teamed up with Dermot Hassett for the event with the all ALMC crew one to watch in their Peugeot 106, a mechanical problem on the club event halted their charge on their last outing together.  Andy Hennessy and Peter Murphy fresh from their great performance in the historic class of the Galway International Rally return to competition sporting Andy's Ford Anglia for the event. Andy and Peter having helped out on the club event will certainly be in their element  and have a really chance of lifting top honours in class 5. Good luck to all the club members taking part, check back on Sunday to see how they all got on!

Endurance Trials are the buzz words in ALMC club members circles these days as the low cost form of Motorsport captures the imagination of numerous club members. Following the disciplines introduction to Irish shores in 2011 led and pioneered by amongst others ALMC Motor Club the exciting and entertaining form of Motorsport is this year set to see no fewer than four competitive events take place with the numbers of entrants growing from event to event. ALMC's Spring Trial earlier this year kicked off the 2012 season, the event was based in Luttrellstown and featured over 16 trial locations including a number of tests tackled in the dark including a tough 15km run through the Luttrellstown estate. In less than a weeks time the Trial circuit moves to the TDC run event which is based in the Ramada Hotel in Bray, Co. Wicklow. Following the TDC event the regular Trial crews will take a summer break providing them with time to work on and perfect their machines before returning to the second of the years ALMC Trial events in September, which last year ran out of the Marriott Hotel in Ashbourne with crews visiting trials in counties Louth, Meath and north Co. Dublin. The final Trial event of the year will take place in Galway in November as the West coast hosts its first ever Endurance Trial an event many ALMC crews are expected to make the journey to and fingers crossed return home with some awards.

ALMC's Greg Star & Shane Cody in action in their Civic and Noel Devlin & Deirdre in the ex-Works Skoda Felicia

If you are interested in taking part in Endurance Trials, see the guide to the sport on the ALMC club site and visit Motorsport Ireland for full regulations, an even easier way to get to know the sport is to come along to an event and help out and witness this new low cost form of Motorsport first hand. If you would like to learn more email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and a club member will be in contact to answers your queries and advise you on how to get started

Andres Reid ALMC's sole entrant on last weekend's Midland Stages Rally guided Pa Bellew in his Ford Escort home to win class 9 by over two minutes and two seconds ahead of Brendan O'Reilly also in a Ford Escort with David Quinn in a Vauxhall Nova over a minute further back in 3rd place in the class. Pa and Andres lead the class from start to finish while climbing the overall standings from their start position of 41st to a credible 23rd overall at the finish, well done to Andres on yet another fantastic performance from all at ALMC.

Well done also to the ALMC marshals that lent a hand and provided Midland Motor Club with their support on the rally on Sunday, without the support of Midland our own stages rally would not be able to run, well done and thanks to all involved.

St. Patrick’s weekend motorsport events provided a mix bag of results for the various competing ALMC competitors. IMRC hosted their annual Autotest at Punchestown race course in Kildare with five competing ALMC drivers taking to the challenging tests, including club stages COC Noel Devlin returning to the wheel of his Toyota Starlet for the event with son Matthew double driving the car, while Lyndsay Doran in her Starlet teamed up with Barry Tracey to take on the tests. The fifth ALMC entry was Martin Devine also in a Starlet who in April will lead the Tullyallen crew in his role as CoC for the club MVAT Autotest.

Lyndsay Doran in Action on the IMRC Autotest

Martin put on a fine display in his class one Starlet finishing second overall to event winner Frank Lenehan and winning the class award for his efforts. Elsewhere the ladies award was won by Lyndsay Doran, who despite a ‘roll on roll off’ experience with a defenceless transport container and a loan of a Starlet later made it to the finish and picked up an award, against all the odds. Barry Tracey finished 13^th overall and eleventh in class 2 while the Devlin team led home by Noel 23rd overall and seventh in class 1 with son Matthew 30^th overall and ninth in the same class. Well done to all involved and roll on the ‘Bunny Run’ on Easter weekend.

Peter Barrable was the sole ALMC competitor on the West Cork rally based in Clonakilty, Peter with co-driver Dermot O’Gorman took an early lead in their Citroën C2R2  and lead the class by over 10 seconds at the end of the first loop of three stages. On stage four a throttle problem resulted in some lost valuable seconds and as Peter set about making back the time he had a fifth gear crash into a stone wall which badly damaged the C2R2 and resulted in him spending a night in hospital with bad concussion, while co-driver Dermot broke two of his ribs and hurt his back. Peter was released from hospital on Sunday and has been advised to rest for a couple of weeks, we wish him a speedy recovery and hope to see him back on the stages soon.

Don Whyatt Navigates George Mackey on the Tour of Epynt -17th O/A

Photo by Alix Jones

Hello and welcome to the ALMC Motor Club's online presence.

Our club is formed from members who are from Dublin, Meath, Westmeath; Kildare ; Fingal, Louth and other surrounding areas and we meet once a month.

The club runs six main events annually: The New Years Day Multi Venue Autotest ; The ALMC Endurance Trial in February ; Multi Venue Autotest on Easter Sunday in April ;  Motor Sport Show in May;  ALMC Stages Rally in July , Autumn Endurance Trial in September.

We are always looking for new motor sport enthusiasts to join the club so any membership enquiries can be made to Club Secretary, Lyndsay Doran on 087-364 9895. You are welcome to come along to our monthly club meeting and meet fellow enthusiasts.  Email Club Secretary for more information:  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The Club meets on the first Wednesday of each month in the City North Hotel  at 8pm (which is situated just off the M1 motorway at Exit 7 -the Julianstown exit). Please check back on www.almc.ie for regular news updates