Late O’Brien charge claims Bushwhacker win and Forest Championship
Patrick and Stephen O’Brien went on a five-stage winning streak to defend their Bushwhacker Rally win and clinch the Irish Forest Rally Championship.
The Skoda crew fought back after sweeping Bushwhacker’s opening four stages to reel in Cathan McCourt over the final five tests.
O’Brien had his focus firmly set on securing the Irish Forest Rally Championship with Jordan Hone his primary challenger. Hone struggled to fully commit on the loose-surface rally, lying sixth overall.
The 25-year-old only needed to stay in position but couldn’t resist pushing for his second home-rally victory against McCourt on the final few stages.
“It is unbelievable,” said O’Brien. “We fell into a race with Cathan and heading into the last stage we said we would go for it. I can’t believe it.”
Lakelands Rally winner Desi Henry set the early pace on the Bushwhacker. The 32-year-old was on the hunt for his seventh rally win of the year. It looked like he could be hard to stop, building a 3.7-second lead after a brace of fastest times on Carrickaholten and Slievedoo.
Fellow Ford Fiesta Rally2 driver, McCourt, responded on the next two tests to reduce Henry’s margin to 0.6 seconds ahead of stage five.
The final stage of Bushwhacker’s opening loop was won by Jason Mitchell, who down in fourth was just 10 seconds off the lead.
Garry Jennings rolled out of tenth position on the same Lough Braden test. He completed the stage in his Fiesta R5, returning to service in time to repair the car and complete the rest of the rally.
Lough Braden also cost Henry the lead of the Bushwhacker. He dropped to third after losing ten seconds to his rally rivals McCourt and O’Brien. A soft tyre and brake issues throughout the day left Henry unable to challenge for a victory but still, he was positive about his performance and his year as a whole.
Conor McCourt, Mark Donnelly, and Hone were trading places for Bushwhacker’s final top-five spot. A fourth-fastest time for McCourt had him jump the two Fiesta R5 drivers on stage five with 1.4 seconds separating the trio.
Gareth Mimnagh had held fifth overall after stage three but he slid his Fiesta off the road at a square-left on Lough Braden.
Crews tackled Carrickaholten in reverse as Bushwhacker’s opening test of the afternoon’s loop of stages. O’Brien revelled through the 4.7-kilometre test. It was his first fastest time of the day after struggling as the first car on the road in Saturday morning’s loose gravel conditions.
McCourt admitted Carrickaholten wasn’t his favourite of Bushwhacker’s offerings as he witnessed O’Brien half his lead to 2.3 seconds.
The fastest time on Slievedoo brought O’Brien to within one second of McCourt before continuing his stage-win streak on stage eight. 0.1 seconds separated the pair ahead of two attempts of Lough Braden which was set to run in reverse.
O’Brien beat the bogey time on both attempts – McCourt did the same on Bushwhacker’s final stage but a loss of 2.6 seconds on the penultimate test was all O’Brien needed to sneak a last-minute victory from McCourt’s grasp.
It is the second time in two years that McCourt has had to settle for Bushwhacker’s runner-up spot behind the 2022 Irish Forest Rally Champion.
Third went to Mitchell and Paddy McCrudden who weren’t far off the front two’s pace. It was Mitchell’s second podium finish in two months. Just 18.5 seconds off Bushwhacker’s overall win, the Victoria Bridge man can take great encouragement from his first time completing the rally.
Henry and Paddy Robinson clung on to fourth overall, enough to secure the Northern Ireland Forest Challenge title.
A string of top five times promoted Donnelly into fifth overall with Hone and McCourt scrapping over fractions of seconds for sixth. Hone pipped McCourt to the position by 1.6 seconds.
Alan Smyth and Gary McCrudden almost completed a two-wheel-drive stage-winning washout on their way to a second category success in a row. The Lakeland Stages and Bushwhacker two-wheel-drive winners finished 14.3 seconds clear of Adrian Hetherington’s Ford Escort Mk2. Donall Sweeney and Ashley Trimble rounded out the top three in their historic specification Escort.
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Photos by Cian Donnellan and Mark McCullagh
