Rally crews from all over Ireland and abroad will be converging on rally headquarters at Garahy’s Garage, Birr to tackle three stages to the east of Birr set out by Clerk of the Course, Eoin Longworth and his team. A maximum of 165 cars will start the event, which is a counting round of the Border Rally Championships.
Top seeded entries on the rally are the Moffett brothers from Co. Monaghan. Carrying the number 1 for the event will be Josh who claimed the win at the last running of the Birr Stages Rally back in 2022, but this time will be in his new Citroen C3 Rally 2.
His brother Sam is seeded at 2 and currently leads the National Rally Championship in his Hyundai i20 R5. Seeded at 3 is Daniel Cronin with his VW Polo GTI R5, just ahead of Declan Boyle in a Citroen C3 Rally 2.
The sole Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy entrant is Jack Brennan from Mooncoin, with navigation to be provided by John McGrath in their Peugeot 208 Rally 4.
It will be a quick turnaround for the crew as they were competing last weekend in Rally Hungary, where they finished 5th in the Junior FIA European Rally Championships.
Other local drivers include David Forde/TJ O’Brien (Nenagh), Liam with his brother Gary Higgins (Birr), Damien Brophy/Gerard Buckley (Laois), Kieran Guinan/Ronan Mooney (Birr). Gearóid O’Regan (Banagher), Tom Holton Jnr (Enfield) and Bobby Cooper (Castlerea) are also in the hunt.
