Donegal 2012 Championship honours for club members Daly and O'Connor

 

 

Trish Daly took two third in class 1 places at the two days of the final championship event in the 2012 Connaught Cometition Engines hillclimb and sprint championship at Knockalla Hill, this confirmed her second in class 1 position.

Gerard O'Connor was second in class 5 on Saturday and first on Sunday in the Donegal Motor Club organised event. These results left Gerard second in class 5 in the championship.

Gerard's report on his weekend.

Knockalla hill in Co. Donegal is a popular event with the hillclimb community, not just with the drivers but with their families too. Stocker Strand is just a few meters from the start line with its over 2km of soft sandfor families to enjoy.
Donegal Motor Club the organisors of the event had a difficult start to the weekend, with a timing system failure. This was not rectified until 1pm. Gerard drove a caution practice run and then on the first timed run he had too much wheel spin off the line and was overly cautious on the approach to the chicane. Gerard set a time of 55.81 1.81s behind class leader Eugen French. Before the second run started the rain came. Gerard and Eugene realised that the first run times were going to be the final result as there was going to be no dry road for the rest of the day. They then agreed to have a wet run challenge and each did one wet run Gerard was quicker in the wet (even with a half spin!) than Eugene (Gerard 61.69s Eugene 62.36s.

Sunday started out with hints of a blue sky. Times for all competitors started dropping with the hill record being smashed by Sylvie Mullins . Eugene was not there on Sunday due to a family commitment, so Gerard took first in class by 1.58s (52.17s) from Scott Milligan.

Gerard's wet run from Saturday

Gerard's second quickest run from Sunday at 52.32s

Gerard O'Connor

Gerard O'Connor in action Photo by permission

Trish Daly

Trish Daly Photo by permission