Local Success in fields other than the GAA in 2019
December 10, 2019
James Deane - Drifting
James Deane was celebrating his 3rd world drifting championship win, in 2019 when he secured World Championship again. His fantastic car, is a Nissan S15 drift car which produces around 1,000bhp from its turbo 2JZ engine and a healthy dose of Nitrous Oxide — so it makes short work of destroying a set of Falken RT615K+ tyres when racing, or indeed practising.
James, this season, claimed six top-three finishes, including victory in St Louis, Missouri, and culminated in a series win in Irwindale Speedway in California.
The Worthouse Drift Team driver returned for the 2019 season, which would prove to be Deane's toughest Formula D season since his return to the series in 2017. On October 19th, 2019 Deane was crowned 2019 Formula Drift Champion for the 3rd year in a row, making him the first driver in the sport's history to pull off this feat. Deane is now tied with Chris Forsberg for most Formula Drift championship titles.
Deane’s victory follows the successful defence of his Drift Masters European Championship title that he’s now won seven times. He also became the 2019 Oman Oil International Drift Champion back in March.
Angus Leonard – Motor Cross Enduro
Enduro – Motorcycles– What is it.
A cross country time & reliability event held on forestry tracks, trails, fire breaks & open moorland riding motocross style machines. These bikes have to be road legal, have lights fitted and conform to road traffic legislation. An enduro is similar to a car rally in that competitors set off at staggered time intervals on a predetermined route The route will consist of a number of laps of a cross county route (a lap can be between 25 and 60 kilometres) marked with bright ‘dayglow’ arrows.
Throughout the course there are time checks and special tests similar to rally special stages. Competitors are penalised 60 points for each full minute they arrive early or late into the time check, and for every second taken riding the special test, riders are penalised one point. The winner is the rider with the least penalty points.
Local Success
Angus Leonard from our parish was crowned Expert class winner of this championship for 2019.
Leah Maunsell – Enduro – Cycle Cross
Leah Maunsell is Ireland’s leading female mountain biker. Leah has dominated proceedings in 2019, she’s also grabbed a win on the world stage too. Leah is currently studying in the University of Limerick on a sporting scholarship.
Her sport is growing at a very steady pace at the moment and Leah started off in the Ballinahoura Mountain trail. Leah has had an awesome start to her racing season with wins at the Grass Roots Enduro in Cork, the Vitus First Tracks Enduro at Ravensdale and wins at the first two rounds of the Gravity Enduro. Leah started her racing journey at an early age but with her father and brother both being very good riders and racers, she was soon building on her skill base and had no option but to get faster or get left behind.
Leah started racing XC and got to the front, fast winning 4 National Championships in her first 5 years. Once the Enduro scene started to become popular Leah soon adopted to the new race format and quickly got stuck in. She has now won the Irish National Enduro Championship title 5 times and in 2017 was the Irish National Champion in both Enduro and Downhill.
It has been a big season of traveling around the world for Leah, competing in the 2019 Enduro World Series. From Madeira, Portugal to Val di Fassa, Italy to Les Orres, France and then all the way to Northstar, California before heading to Zermatt, Switzerland for the final round.
Leah says “It’s been such an amazing season getting to race bikes in so many beautiful places against the fastest U21 ladies in the world. I’ve had some good days, bad days, won some and lost some by the closest of margins, I’ve laughed a lot and cried a bit but most of all I’ve learned a huge amount both about my character and what it takes to compete at the highest level of my sport.”
There is a fantastic podcast on Leah on the website below;
http://freewheelin.ie/mtb-tribe-podcast-leah-maunsell-ireland-enduro-champion/
There is a local stage of the Irish Moonraker Enduro Series in Killavullen on the Nagle Mountains, when the facilities of Killavullen GAA club are utilised for the competitors. In 2019, this occurred on the weekend of the 31st March 2019.
In 2020, the series is planning to return on the 15th March.