Mulligan and Carolan share Midland title

Trevor Mulligan and Thomas Carolan are jointly celebrating perfect scores and the overall title in the Midlands East Rally Championship this week. The two Moynalty drivers scored maximum points thanks to class wins in each of the counting rounds, and will share the 2009 honours. Carolan's co-driver Declan Smith takes the title for navigators, as the two shared their 1.4litre MkII on all the rounds, but Lisa Roe, who sat alongside Mulligan on most of the rounds was forced to miss the last one, the GSMC Mini Stages on Sunday (October 18), and takes third in the final table. Martin Byrne from Bailieboro was Mulligan's co-driver on Sunday. "We're keeping it in the parish," said Thomas Carolan on Monday, as he told The Anglo-Celt about his day on the GSMC stages. "It was very slippy on stages one and two, but it dried up for three and four. "We had a good run, we knew the way we were going they [the opposition in class nine] would have it hard to beat us, but we lost 15 or 20 seconds behind another car, and on stage two we couldn't get any grip at all. "No one could get grip in the back wheel drive cars... on Saturday you were going round in your t-shirt, but it rained during the night." That overnight rain left the roads greasy for Sunday's competition, creating a road surface that was like driving on ice, according to Trevor Mulligan. "We had a good day yesterday," said the Moynalty man. "We were second overall in the rally; the first two stages were slippy and we were third or fourth overall then we came back on the last two." Trevor was happy with co-driver Martin Byrne's performance on their first outing together. Hopefully the "few slides at high speed - sixth gear slides" won't put him off repeating the exercise. "Everything was grand," said Trevor, "the weather played a part in it. The first two stages were like driving on ice, worse than when it's wet." No wonder when your MkII Escort has a 320bhp engine powering its rear wheels... Trevor says he might do the Killarney Historic Stages Rally in December "if we can get a budget together for it" and is hoping to do the National Rally Championship in 2010. In the meantime, he passed on his thanks to sponsors Curran Oil of Oldcastle and Declan Smith Panelbeating, "and to all the other sponsors that helped out through the year" as well as Mark Smith Rally Preparation. The latter company also prepares Carolan's Escort, which "was absolutely flying" on Sunday. It was running so well that he and Smith took 57s off their times on the second loop of stages: "We didn't hold back on the last two stages - where we could push we pushed," said Thomas. "We were delighted with our run." He and Declan are also delighted with their season, as they've now added the Midlands title to the Border one they took last week. He was also Driver of the Day on the Monaghan Stages rally earlier in the year. Thomas credited M&S Motorsport for their success: "Thanks to Mark Smith and Gerry Buckley there wasn't a rally we didn't finish - we had 100% reliability. Once you keep a check on them [the cars], it saves a lot of time and a lot of money... as Mark says, it could be something simple now and something expensive later on." James Cassidy and John Norris won class 12 in the Midland series; Pat and Jimmy Bellew were second in class nine. • Round five of the Mervyn Wedlock Plant Hire Autocross Championship is this Sunday, October 25 at Latton. Send entries to Alex Coleman, Station Road, Cootehill; phone 086-3967331. • The Dunlop National Rally Championship culminates with the 10th and final round, the West Cork Hotel Fastnet Rally in Skibbereen on Sunday. The seven-stage encounter will decide the destiny of the Vard Memorial Trophy for the overall winner between Niall Maguire and Patrick Elliott. Maguire seeks an unprecedented fourth national title while Elliott's quest is back-to-back titles. The permutations • If Maguire takes maximum points in Skibbereen (152 points), Elliott needs a top three finish to claim the Dunlop title. • If Maguire doesn't secure maximum points in Skibbereen, a top four finish will be enough for Elliott. • If both retire or Elliott fails to finish in Skibbereen, it's Maguire title. "The same as Donegal really," Maguire told Dunlop this week. "I'll have to go as hard as I can, it's going to be a tall order, but what can I do? That's the way it is entering the final round. In one sense, there's no pressure on me, Patrick has to finish in the top four, top three if I win the rally. "I'll also be hoping Jennings and Kelleher have a good result and even finish ahead of Patrick. But I can't see Patrick finishing fourth, unless he has a problem. My tie-break on the Circuit of Kerry was hard to take, those extra two points would be of great benefit now, as would the two I lost to Kevin Barrett in Galway. But I have to live with that now, so we'll hope for the best and take it from there." Elliott said: "In Donegal, where I was coming back from an accident on the previous round in Galway, my confidence was poor, especially on the first loop. We had a poor set-up in the car. My plan is the same as any of the previous rounds. We will tackle the opening loop and then assess the situation. "I have to think of the championship, but saying that I'll have to set a good pace rather than put something at risk by not concentrating and driving below that pace. I've won in Skibbereen before, but this is all about the day. "Apart from Niall, Kevin Barrett will also be trying to win the rally. Weather conditions, particularly if it is wet or damp, could see the GpN cars coming into the equation too."