On Sunday the 13th of April the Galway Motor Club held their first event of the year The Endurance Trial. This year the Galway Endurance trial was the first round of the Skoda Parts Ireland National Endurance Championship and the event made a welcoming return to East Galway with the Kiltormer GAA complex providing the headquarters once again.

This year saw local Kiltormer native Eoin Stapleton take on the role of Clerk Of The Course and with a good team behind him he set out a 17 selective event. The morning loop saw a magnificent entry of 65 crews take on 9 tests in the Killimor/Tynagh area navigating their way through the some of the various farm lanes and farmyards that East Galway had to offer before returning to the Headquarters for a well deserved but short lived lunch halt!

A further 8 tests awaited the competitors for the afternoon and with a more compact road section the aim was to get finished up at a reasonable hour but unfortunately with the large number of entries and very little retirements the last test on the day was halted and 56 finishers headed back to Headquarters for the final clock in.

The quickest time overall was set by a Toyota Starlet driven by local crew Shane Burns & Dave Ray who were literally on fire from the word go! But the outright winner was decided by the A class. Robert Howard & Andrew Stewart took the victory in their Toyota Starlet who finished a mere 5 seconds ahead of Patsy Mc Donagh & Leigh Cavanagh in a Suzuki ignis. The 3rd overall spot went to Owen Murphy & Patrick O Sullivan in their Toyota Yaris.