Cyril Wharton Plant & Tool Hire / Castleisland Tyre Centre
Killarney Forestry Rally

On the 17th and 18th February all roads led to Castleisland, Co. Kerry for the Cyril Wharton Plant & Tool Hire / Castleisland Tyre Centre Killarney Forestry Rally. The event was Round 1 of the Sligo Pallets Forestry Championship and attracted an exciting field of 91 entrants from all four corners of the island of Ireland.

Clerk of the Course Kevin Flannery set a challenging day for the competitors with the rally comprising of 6 stages north east of Castleisland town. The format was 3 stages done twice with the crews getting back to the sanctity of service after the first loop. The stages themselves were similar to those used in previous years and have always been very popular with regular competitors. The stages were as follows:

• Stages 1 & 4: Mullaghareirk – 12.60 km

• Stages 3 & 5: Forehane – 6.80 km

• Stages 3 & 6: Mount Eagle – 10.80 Km

The event was sub-divided into three categories. The 4 wheel-drive entrants, the 2 wheel-drive entrants and the Junior entrants.

Starting number 1 and leading off the rally in the 4-wheel drive section for the second year running were Jordan and Paul Hone in their Ford Fiesta R5. In 2023 the crew turned in a solid performance in the Rally to finish 5th overall. This year the crew arrived intending to improve. 

Hot on their heels and seeded number 2 was the VW Polo of Andrew Purcell and Liam Brennan.  It was Andrew’s first time in Killarney but his turn of speed is well known and lack of familiarity of the stages was never going to be a disadvantage.

Seeded 3 on the road was the very experienced Vivian Hamill with Gary Nolan navigating. Vivian made the switch back to his Forestry spec VW Polo after campaigning a Historic Ford Escort at the Roger Albert Clark Rally in November 2023. In the 2023 Killarney Forestry Vivian was fastest on Stages 1 & 2 and held a solid top 3 position before unfortunately retiring on Stage 5.

In the 2 wheel-drive section top seeds were Mickey Conlon and James McEnaney in their Class 14 Ford Escort Mk2. Mickey arrived to the event match fit and ready having competed in the Galway International Rally just 2 weeks previously.  Second 2 wheel-drive crew on the road were car 202 Hugh McQuaid and Declan Casey in their Class 13 Ford Escort Mk2. The pair finished top 2 wheel-drive at last year’s rally winning the event by 9.4 seconds from 2024 top seed Mickey Conlon.  However, at the eleventh hour Tyrone’s Shane McGirr and Denver Rafferty submitted a late entry in the 2 wheel drive effectively putting the proverbial cat among the pigeons.  Their Lada Riva is an unusual but very welcome variation on the forestry stages.

The Junior rally section comprised of an amazing 24 entrants. This particular class is exclusively for drivers aged 14 to 17 years in cars under 1000cc either starting, or in the infancy of their rallying career. Given their ages each driver was accompanied by an adult navigator who drove the car on the public roads between stages.  

The event began in earnest at 8:40 a.m. from Castleisland Mart.  Fastest on Stage one was Number 1 seeds Jordan and Paul Hone quickest by 1.5 seconds from Vivian Hamill and Gary Nolan with Andrew Purcell and Liam Brennan third.  These crews continued to hold the top three spots until Stage five when Andrew and Liam were unfortunately forced to retire.  This resulted in Niall McGonigle and Caolan McKenna inheriting third place in their Ford Fiesta and that’s how the event finished.  At the conclusion of the rally only 33 seconds covered the top three.

The 2-wheel drive category resulted in an almost start to finish win by Shane McGirr and Denver Rafferty in the Lada. The crew temporarily relinquished the lead for a short period on Stage 3 but got it back on Stage 4.  The crew eventually finished the event 9th Overall and winning 2-wheel drive by 10 seconds from Mickey Conlon and James McEneaney.

The Junior Category was won by Cavan’s Danny Brady and Darren O’Brien un the VW Up.  Similar to Jordan and Paul Hone the crew led from start to finish win in the Category.  However, this win didn’t come easy with several Junior drivers in the hunt for the win for most of the day.  Their winning margin at the end was a mere 8 seconds from Cork’s Tommy Cronin and Derek Butler in their Toyota Aygo with the Skoda Citigo of Ryan and Darren Caldwell taking the final podium place.