HENRY WINS, MOFFET’S TITLE
Sam Moffett claims the Irish Forest series
Organiser: Omagh MC When: September 23 Where: Omagh, County Tyrone Championship: Irish Forest Rally Championship; MSA Northern Ireland Rally Championship Stages: 6 Starters 109.
Scratch times on all but one special stage handed Desi Henry and his Skoda Fabia team-mate Liam Moynihan a commanding 27-second victory on Saturday’s Bushwhacker Rally in Omagh. It was also where Sam Moffett was crowned Irish Forest Rally champion.
Making his first loose-surface outing since the Scottish Rally back in May, Henry enjoyed a trouble-free day at the wheel of his Czech-built machine to record only his second outright win of the year. “It was nice to come here and get the win,” he said. “It’s a surface we always seem to go well on.”
Another driver heading home happy was Jonny Greer, who was making his debut on a rally famously known as the ‘Omagh Grand Prix’. Runner-up in the Northern Ireland series points for the Citroen DS 3 R5 competitor means the series will be decided on the last round, November’s Tour of the Sperrins.
With all his dropped scores used up Greer knew that he had to finish ahead of defending champion Derek Mcgarrity to keep his title hopes alive and he managed to do that despite opening the road.
Greer claimed second place by a mere four seconds from popular Scottish visitor, Jock Armstrong. “The stages were fast. Really fast,” said the recent Galloway Hills winner Armstrong. “It was an excellent event.”
Armstrong’s prowess in the forests made the difference as he clinched the Class Eight bragging rights from the Mitsubishi Lancer of Paul Barrett in fourth, with Mcgarrity rounding out the top five spots.
The loudest cheer was reserved for Ford Fiesta RS WRC driver Moffett, however, as he did more than enough on the high-speed gravel event to be crowned forest champion.
For Moffett, whose objective was “be sensible and get the car home”, it was mission accomplished meaning he remains on course to become the first person to win three Irish titles (Tarmac, National and Forest) in the same year.
“None of this was planned at the beginning of the season; we seemed to get sucked into it after a good start to all three championships,” said Moffett. “It has been a hard day; we went for a bit of a push near the end to try and keep the concentration up. But we finished and that is the main thing.
“This has been such a long time coming. What we’ve achieved still really hasn’t sunk in,” he added.
Alan Carmichael (Mini John Cooper Works WRC), on only his second gravel rally in nine years, fought back from a slow start to move ahead of Alan Smyth on the closing ‘Lough Bradan 2’ stage to bag seventh.
Adrian Hetherington struggled to negotiate the bale chicanes on the first loop in his Ford Fiesta R5, but his confidence grew in the afternoon as he made up seven places to deny Niall Mccullagh ninth. However, 10th was still good enough to hand Mccullagh and Ryan Mccloskey the Group N award. Jordan Hone fought back from early gear selection issues to take the Irish Forest Championship’s Group N class title.
The two-wheel-drive trophy was won in convincing fashion by Ford Escort driver David Crossen. This was his sixth class win from six starts, with his advantage over Oran Donnelly almost 50s.
Top seed and 2016 Bushwhacker Rally winner Mark Donnelly was a surprise retirement, his Subaru Impreza suffering mechanical woes on the second test. Martin Cairns bowed out even earlier when his Ford Fiesta RS WRC left the road on the opening four-and-a-half miles of Carrickaholten.