Duggan and Fleming are Kingdom of Kerry Rally champions
Sean Moriarty
ROB Duggan has been confirmed as the inaugural Moriarty’s Centra Kingdom of Kerry Rally Champion following the recent Killarney Historic Rally.
Damien Fleming, from Kilcummin, is the co-driving champion.
THe Kingdom of Kerry Rally Championship was launched this year in an effort to get members of Kerry Motor Club and Killarney and District Motor Club to enter more local rallies.
Declining entries on some rallies were putting clubs all over Ireland at a financial risk and a survey conducted by Motorsport Ireland earlier this year found that many competitors only did one rally a year. Further research found that if they increased the number of events entered by just one it could have a significant impact on clubs all over the country in terms of increased numbers.
However, it was also widely believed that there was no real incentive for competitors to enter more events and that is where the in the idea of the Kingdom of Kerry Rally Championship came into play.
Opening with the Circuit of Kerry in April and counting each day of the Rally of the Lakes as an individual round and closing with the recent Rentokil-Initial backed Historic rally, drivers and navigators counted their best three days of competition. A complicated, but fair classbased scoring system ensured that any driver from any class could be in the running for championship glory.
Duggan joined the fray on the Cartell.ie Rally of the Lakes and won his class on both days. The high entry in class 14 for the May event ensured he went away with maximum points and while he did not finish December’s rally the additional starting point ensured he avoided a tie-break situation with Darren Young.
The Tralee-based Honda Civic driver started the season well with a third placed on the keenly supported 1600cc Front-wheeldrive class on the Circuit of Kerry and backed this up with two class wins on each day of The Rally of the Lakes. However the class was not as strongly contested so he scored fewer points than Duggan in May. Owning a modern rally car, he was also illegible to enter the Historic rally so his best of three results came from the opening three rounds.
This place went to Gneeveguilla’s Seanie O’Leary who was one of the few drivers to contest all rounds in his Toyota Starlet.
Colin O’Donoghue from Killarney won the junior section, a win on the junior Rally of the Lakes in a Civic was backed up with a fine fourth overall in a BMW M3 on the December event.
Mark Falvey, from Rathmore, won the Historic section in his Ford Escort Mk1, second overall in December and a class win in Tralee in April ensured his success.
In the co-drivers section, Damian Fleming from Kilcummin is the champion. He started the season alongside Falvey and moved to the Toyota Corolla of Monaghan’s Raymond Conlon for the remaining rounds where they scored three class wins.
Pa Lawlor, Young’s co-driver finished second, with Noel Fleming, O’Leary’s map man, third.
Meagan Costello will receive the ladies award, co-driving for her father Jason earlier on the Circuit of Kerry, she switched to the Ford Escort Mk1 of Ray Hilliard for the Rally of the Lakes and combined results meant she was the highest placed female competitor in either the driver or co-driver’s category.
Championship sponsor Mike Moriarty of Centra Farranfore said there are plans to improve the championship next year and that organisers will look at the scoring system and other factors.
“We did well for our first year and I know of several competitors in both clubs who contested local rallies that they did not enter in the past. That is our purpose so we are happy enough from that point,” he said.
The championship awards night will take place on Saturday December 29 in Pat Sheahan’s Pub in Firies, a premises owned by former Circuit of Kerry Clerk of the Course, Jonathan O’Shea and a natural half-way house between the two clubs.