After a break of just under three weeks, the 2025 Sligo Pallets Forest Rally Championship shifts up a gear as we get set for the return of the Moonraker Forest Rally, and a new challenge for many of the competitors as the legendary events returns for Round 2 of the season with a new base and some incredible stages that have laid dormant for over a decade.
Having stepped off last years calendar, the ever-popular Munster Car Club event returns for 2025 and in doing so moves East to Dungarvan, with the Waterford town playing host to an incredible entry of 124 crews ready to tackle stages absolutely steeped in Irish Forest Rallying folklore!
It was Michael O’Brien & Greg Shinnors who last tasted victory on these stages way back in 2013, and there are a whole host of stars ready to add their names to the history books this Saturday.
Leading the field away are 2024 Champions Derek Mackarel & Eamonn Creedon, they began their season with a podium finish on the Carlow Forest Rally in March and sit second in the standings, but leaders Jason Mitchell & Paddy McCrudden are absent from the entry.
Local star and former Moonraker podium finisher Andrew Purcell & Liam Brennan will aim to be putting Mackarel & Creedon under pressure right from the off in their Ford Fiesta Rally2, with Vivian Hamill & Gary Nolan and Stephen Dickson & Dermot McCafferty also in with a shout in similar machinery, while both Niall Devine & Liam McIntyre and former Forest Champion Pat O’Connell & Mark Wiley will have older Fiesta R5’s in what is a very Ford dominated head of the field.
The standout amongst the registered Championship crews is the appearance of Eamonn Kelly & Conor Mohan in a Ford Fiesta Rally3. The pair, who finished second on last years Lakeland Stages Rally, will use the event as a test before they head to Rally de Portugal which is the next round of their Junior WRC campaign, but knowing the pair there will be a push on once the clock strikes ‘go’ at the start of the opening stage.
In the 2WD battle, it’s the Lada Riva VFTS of Shane McGirr & Denver Rafferty who are top seeds, last years champions will have a tight battle once more over the Waterford stages as they cross paths with long time rivals and friends Hugh McQuaid & Declan Casey, that pair coming out on top by just 2.6 seconds on the first round of the season.
Another brace of Ford Escort MK2’s follow McQuaid, with Damien Tourish & Domhnall McAlaney aiming to replicate their incredible debut in the Historic spec car in Carlow and Sam Stewart & Alan Johnston keen to overturn the 0.5 second gap that separated the pair last time out.
