O’BRIEN’S GRAVEL DOMINATION

Patrick and Stephen O’Brien made their annual trip to the forests of counties Fermanagh & Tyrone last month aboard their usual, now-ageing, 2017 Skoda Fabia R5, and in the space of two weeks, the Omagh-born brothers dominated two loose-surface events. Despite being up against several crews in more modern cars, the duo won the Lakeland Stages Rally for the third consecutive year and the Bushwhacker Rally for a record-equaling fifth year in succession! Patrick O’Brien commutes from his home in Perth, Western Australia while co-driver Stephen still lives in Omagh.

The Lakeland Stages on Saturday 6 September consisted of six stages (three repeated) in the Carrigan & Ballintempo Forest complex near Derrygonnelly totalling 30.32 miles. Altogether 104 cars left the Enniskillen start headed for SS1 Carrigan. In what is possibly a gravel rally record, no less than 30 of the starters were in class one R5/Rally2 machines. My job was to cover start radio on SS1/4. BMMC rescue joined me for the two stages.

Enniskillen MC decided to run two-wheel-drive cars first on the road this year, to give them a better chance at tackling the slippery gravel tests before the 4WD cars really cut them up. There were 56 2WD starters on stage one followed by a further 48 four-wheel-drive cars. The 3.60 mile stage started on schedule at 11.06 and no incidents occurred, but because the start of the next stage (SS2) was close to the stop line of stage one, a few delays occurred due to a back-log of competitors. It took 2 hours 14 minutes to put all 104 cars into stage one! Then one hour later we did it all over again! Second time round we had a total of 91 competitors into SS4, once again without any major problems. We were stood-down at around 16.40.

The weather was fine & dry all day and temperatures were average for the time of year at around 16%C. As I said earlier, the O’Brien brothers won the rally. Second were Cathan McCourt and Barry McNulty just 5.3 seconds back in their latest spec. Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 while Kevin Eves/Chris Melly finished third in their Ford Fiesta Rally2. Top 2WD finishers were Sam Stewart/Stephen Peoples in 15th place with their Ford Escort Mk2.

The Lakeland Stages Rally was round one of the 2025 Brown & Brown Motorsport UK NI Forest Rally Challenge. Top points finishers here were Jordan & Paul Hone who finished the rally in 7th with their Ford Fiesta R5. The rally was also round six of the 2025 Sligo Pallets Irish Forest Rally Championship and top registered driver was 8th placed Stephen Dickson and co-driver Ben Teggart in a Fiesta Rally2.

SAFTEY CONCERNS ON GRAVEL RALLIES

On the Lakeland Stages Rally there was a major problem with the set-up of the start control for stages 1/4 Carrigan. There was insufficient parking for service vehicles. The timekeepers and myself just about managed to park but rescue, doctor, stage commander and the ambulance had to base themselves at the arrival control. Not an ideal situation if there was an emergency. I expressed my concern to rally control, but apparently there was insufficient time to move the start to a safer location. I suspect the real reason was that they didn’t wish to shorten the stage! During the event my car was hit by a stone thrown up by a competitor and, even though they were positioned at arrival control, the service vehicles were peppered with stones as competitors warmed up their tyres! The organisers (Enniskillen MC) have since agreed to compensate me for the damage to my car. Apparently similar problems at stage starts occurred on the Bushwhacker Rally.

Stage rally organisers need to protect us all. We are volunteers who give up our time and drive considerable distances to insure a safe running of their events. We expect to have an enjoyable and stress-free day! Clubs should give a bit more thought to safety, risk assessment and what is required when setting up gravel stage start and finish controls. Incidentally, the MSUK Safety Delegate did not question the start set-up on SS1/4 of the Lakeland Stages. Why does that not surprise me!

BUSHWHACKER’S 50th ANNIVERSARY

The Bushwhacker Rally (19-20 September) celebrated its 50th anniversary this year. Organisers Omagh MC decided to mark the occasion by running a two-day event which included three night stages. The event was sponsored by McKelvey Construction. Altogether a huge entry of 125 cars started the 3-leg 65.02 stage-mile event. There were 29 class one cars (Rally2/R5). A further 5 competitors in the Nissan Micra Challenge were added on Saturday only.

Leg 1 on Friday evening comprised of four stages; SS1/4 Lough Bradan (7.09 miles) SS2 Killeter (5.51 miles) and SS3 Carrickaholten (4.85 miles)

Legs 2/3 on Saturday included a further six tests; SS5/8 Killeter (8.30 miles) SS6/9 Carrickalolten (4.85 miles) and SS7/10 Lough Bradan (7.09 miles)

Although some BMMC members were on duty both days, my contribution was to cover radio at the finish of the Killeter stages on Saturday. The weather was dry on Friday but mixed on Saturday, wet for the first run but dry by the time of the second pass. A wealth of experienced rally officials gathered together at the Killeter finish controls. I was joined by Robert McDaid, Elkin Robinson and Michael Carlin from Maiden City MC who, along with Cookstown’s Malcolm McQueen, covered the time controls. The craic was mighty as we reminisced events over the years which we were all involved in, including WRC Rally Ireland. It is now, unbelievably, 16 years since the second and final one in 2009.

Both Killeter stages ran almost to schedule and without incident, apart from one car failing to stop at the finish time control on the first run! The driver of car No. 39 drove past the timekeepers at rally speed; thankfully none of us were injured nor indeed were our vehicles damaged! Unbelievably, car 39 continued in the rally and reappeared on run two! I would have thought he should have been excluded?

There were 120 finishers on SS5 and then 104 on SS8. Patrick and Stephen O’Brien led the Bushwhacker from start to finish in their usual 2017 Skoda Fabia R5. No one else came close to them, except Cathan McCourt who actually won two stages in his newer Fabia Rally2. Unfortunately McCourt retired from second place with mechanical issues on the final stage of the event.

This was Patrick O’Brien’s fifth Bushwhacker Rally win in a row, which equals the record set by Robbie McGurk between 1998 and 2003 (there was no rally in 2001 due to foot-and-mouth disease) Conor McCourt/Caolan McKenna finished second in their Skoda Fabia RS Rally2, but they were 1 minute and 57.6 seconds down! Third overall were Darragh Cairns and Mark Preston in a VW Polo GTI R5. Meanwhile best of the 2WD finishers were Martynas Samsonas/Ugnius Vainevicius who were 15th in their fabulous BMW M3 E36.

Good to see multiple Bushwhacker winners doing “stage demo runs” during the anniversary event. Four-time winner Hugh O’Brien was driving a Ford Escort Mk.2 similar to the one he used on each of those four occasions, while eight-time victor Robbie McGurk was out in an Opel Manta 400. McGurk won the rally driving a Manta in 1991 and 1993.

The 50th Bushwhacker Rally was a double-header in the Brown & Brown NI Forest Rally Challenge. On the Friday stages (Leg 1) the winners were Jordan and Paul Hone in their Ford Fiesta R5 while on Saturday (Legs 2/3) Niall McCullagh and Martin Brady scored top points in their Skoda Fabia RS Rally2. The Hone’s lead the Challenge heading for the next round, the Dogleap Rally on October 11th. In the final round of the Micra Challenge, all five cars finished with Ben Fallis and Louise McBarron taking the win. Andrew Bush and Geraldine McBride had already won the series on the Lakeland Stages.

The Bushwhacker was also the penultimate round of the 2025 Sligo Pallets Irish Forest Rally Championship. Jason Mitchell and Paddy McCrudden did enough to win the title with a round to spare. The Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 crew finished the rally in 8th place.

RALLY DIARY

Sat. 11th October
Dogleap Rally

Round 4 of the 2025 Brown & Brown MSUK Northern Ireland Forest Rally Challenge. Organised by Maiden City Motor Club. Sponsored by Premier Car Parts. Rally HQ & service park based at the Shackleton complex in Ballykelly. There are six gravel stages (three repeated) totalling 28.02 miles; SS1/4 Loughermore West (3.90 miles) SS2/5 Loughermore East (2.06 miles) SS3/6 Cam (8.05 miles) BMMC are covering rescue, radio and stage marshalling. As I write, there are 65 cars on the entry list, 20 of which are Rally2/R5 machines.

Sat. 22nd November
Samsonas Rally Fivemiletown

The 5th and final round of the 2025 Brown & Brown MSUK Northern Ireland Forest Rally Challenge. Postponed from February due to storm damage. Organised by Omagh MC. The rally uses gravel stages south of Fivemiletown in Co. Tyrone. This is due to be our last stage rally of the year. Full details next month.