This article is from page 83 of the 2009-12-15 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 83 JPG
RALLY co-driver Grainne McEnery from Ennis has had a fantastic sea- son so far this year culminating re- cently when she was presented with the Dunlop National Rally Champi- onship Awards in Galway where she was honoured with the fastest two wheel drive car in the 09 Dunlop Na- tional Championship.
Grainne, a service manager with O’Sullivan & Hansbury Motors has had rallying in her blood from a young age having travelled as a spec- tator with her father Joe to events all over the country and also being in- volved with her brother Charlie who navigates with Anthony O’Halloran.
She began co-driving in 2006 in the Clare Stages Rally with British based Galwegian, John Reddington (Ford Escort) where they finished eleventh overall. Her first big acci- dent came in the 2008 Clare Stages where she co-drove for Eddie Cogan in a Peugeot 205
Just before the beginning of the 2009 Dunlop National Rally Cham- pionship Grainne was asked if she would be interested in co-driving with Kerry’s Mike Quinn in a Mk 2 Escort. Naturally, she did not hesi- tate and so far its turning out to be a
very fruitful partnership. Mike from Listowel in Kerry has been rally- ing his escort for about fifteen years and has had many a battle with local driver Anthony O’Halloran down through the years when Anthony was driving his Opel Manta. This bat-
tle continued in the ‘09 season with Anthony driving his Mitsubishi Evo and Mike still in the Escort and with a great brother sister rivalry devel- oping in the McEnery family it was Grainne who came out on top on the recent Auburn Lodge Clare Stages Rally back in September.
After swapping times all day on their home event O’Halloran and Quinn were second and third overall behind Niall Maguire’s Subaru Imp- reza but on the last stage O’Halloran’s Mitsubishi developed a puncture af- ter picking up piece of steel on the road and this put them out of the event leaving Quinn and Grainne to finish second overall.
The 2009 season started in The Birr Stages Rally where Mike & Grainne finished 12th overall. Next was The Kerry Stages rally which was based in Tralee where they finished 3rd overall and the first two wheel drive car.
The Circuit of Munster in Limerick proved more difficult as they crashed
out hitting a pole and this put them back to 92nd place. After getting back on the road they fought their way back up tp 21st overall and they won Class 14.
Grainne and Mike crashed out again on the next round The Ravens Rock Rally in Carlow where they hit a wall, after getting back on the road they finished 35th overall and another win in class 14.Next was the Stonethrow- ers Rally in Clonmel where they fin- ished sixth overall and the first two Wheel drive car. They repeated this result in the next round The Galway Summer Rally, sixth overall and first two wheel drive. Grainne and Mike are now lying second overall in the championship with one round to go in Limerick on December 28. After a fantastic first season for Grainne and Mike they will be hoping to hold this position after Limerick and if they can secure some sponsorship for they hope to be back in 2010.