Kerry’s newest form of motorsport hit the lanes last weekend.

Kerry’s newest form of motorsport hit the lanes last weekend.

A new form of entry-level motorsport was held in Kerry for the first time last weekend.
Killarney and District Motor Club hosted an endurance trial in mid-Kerry.
Endurance Trials are designed to provide a cheap introduction to motorsport. They are a variant of Night Navigation events (rather than a variant of Stage Rallying) but the competitive part of the event took place on Selectives instead of special stages, which are closed to other traffic.
Selectives were held on private grounds, such as farm roads and boreeens and they varied in length.
Cars used had to be road-legal and fitted with basic safety equipment like harnesses.
Competitors were obliged to wear helmets on the Selectives.
A total of 36 cars – out of the permitted 40 – cars started the new event and it was based at the Faha Court.
Time tests took place in farmyards close to headquarters like Beaufort and Firies. #
The event was the brainchild of Killarney and District Motor Club vice-chairman Mike O’Shea who also competed on the event.
The Firies man is behind the KDMC2 programme which encourages newcomers, particularly young people, into motorsport.
“It was a great day’s craic,” he said. “The club will be applying to Motorsport Ireland for dates for next year and members of Cork and Skibbereen clubs told me they would be doing the same thing. Some drivers were competing in cars that cost less than a front bumper for a Rally2 car.”
The event attracted several newcomers to motorsport sport – an estimated nine cars had either one or two novices on board.
“Some of them didn’t know the difference between a roadbook and rosary beads but everyone loved it,” added Mike.
Well-known local rallyman David Griffin competed in the event. His 16-year-old son Shay, made his motorsport debut in a Toyota Yaris they both prepared together.
“The beauty about this is you can compete in a car that you can use every day on the road. If you have any bit of mechanical knowledge you can convert the car in an afternoon. Shay turned 16 at the end of May, a National B navigator’s licence is available from the age of 16 so he was straight into it. We built the car between us in the shed every night for the last few weeks.”

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