It’s all go..go..go as the Irish Enduro Championship returns to action down south in good auld Co. Cork, site of the infamous, legendary Blackwater 100….
After a lengthy two-month break, the Irish enduro championship sprung back into life as the series headed south to Killavullen, just outside Mallow in Co. Cork. Although being the only full two-day event on the calendar, the event still had a lot to offer. With two long, tough and physical days in the saddle, Killavullen can quickly separate the men from the boys over the almost seemingly endless rocky, mountain terrain.
John O'Neill "kept 'er lit" on Saturday...
Entering the final weekend of August, reigning champion Paul McLoughlin was heading the Expert class. With a strong opening start to his season, he bagged wins in the opening two rounds of the championship and was hopeful for his run of good luck and form to continue. But during the break, he’d hit the ground hard, damaging his shoulder thus levelling the playing field. Two long days on the pegs was always going to be a tough ask for McLoughlin and despite setting some blisteringly fast special test times he’d have to settle for third overall on the weekend with a 4th and 7th scorecard. Up front the battle for top honours was fought out between John O’Neill and Greame Vigors. Saturday was to be O’Neill’s day as he fired out a string of times that couldn’t be beat. A big win for John and the first since he re-stepped back up to Experts. Fired up to do the double he pushed hard on Sunday to repeat the success of the previous day. But so too did Vigors, determined to make up for Saturday’s short comings. Vigors attacked each and every test with fury and speed that never saw him challenged. Sunday’s win would come his way and with it the overall victory.
The Senior’s is quickly shaping up to be a battle of the ‘Bergs between Husaberg mounted duo David McNulty and Richard Leonard. Championship leader Leonard was keen to continue his winning ways in Cork, but possibly too eager. On Saturday he would suffer his greatest mistake clipping a tree during his second test and going down hard. Those idle seconds gave McNulty a comfortable cushion to take a shot at the opening day’s win. Even with topping the final two tests, it wasn’t enough for Leonard to prevent McNulty from riding ahead for the win. With confidence brewing, fortune would again favour McNulty on Day 2. Fastest on the opening test, David not only backed it up again in the remaining tests but consistently improved during each run to grab another win and a maximum point haul. Richie again followed him home for second while adding another hefty points haul to his championship chase. With a fourth and third, Chad Hamiltion did enough to round out the top three.
Paul St John came away from Cork smiling with second
Setting test times that could easily put him challengingly the top end of Seniors, James Farrell was the runaway winner of Clubman. Winning Saturday by over two-minutes no one else really got a look in. Missing from the opening day’s action, championship leader Jonnie Mercier was the only one to challenge Farrell, but yet could not get close enough as he powered off to a commanding 40-second win. With Mercier out of the reckoning for overall honours, Paul St. John slipped through for second quickly followed by Joe Rice and David Fitzgerald.
In Sportsman, David Mahon was the outright winner, helped by a strong winning performance on Sunday. After Colm McHugh topped the time sheets on Sunday, he couldn’t repeat the same feat and had to settle for second as Declan Thornhill round out the top three.
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With Killavullen now in the bag, the enduro season continues as the penultimate round of the Southern Centre moves to Kilworth, Co Cork as replacement for the originally pencilled in Clonaslee on September 26th.
Results: killavullen_day1_provisional_results killavullen_day2_provisional_results killavullen_combined_provisional_resultsMany thanks to Ricardo aka Richard Murphy for braving the effect of a monsterous hangover to click off a few photos.