Round two of the 2016 Valvoline Motorsport Ireland National Forest Rally Championship, the Moonraker Forest Rally  was won by County Antrim’s Desi Henry, with Cork co-driver Liam Moynihan.

Henry  set the pace in their Skoda Fabia R5was fastest on all eight stages to take a landmark victory.

“We got a new set up from Skoda for the gravel and it worked well from the offset” said the Portglenone driver.” The car never missed a beat all day and the stages were smooth, fast and very enjoyable. It was one of the best rallies you would get in Ireland. It was a good test also for the BRC Pirelli Rally, and if we come home from that in one piece we will contest the Tour of the Sperrins, which is a local event to us. The Irish Forest series is a great championship, and we will see rally by rally how we get on with the other series as to whether we can contest the remaining rounds. Hopefully the Moonraker is the start of a change of fortune this year after a mixed start to the rally season.”

The battle for second was really one to watch as Tipperary’s Pat O’Connell moved ahead of Ger Lucey after increasing the pace on stages four and five. Another driver upping the pace was Brendan Cumiskey, revelling in the handling of his new R5 Fiesta, moving into third after stage six, and just five seconds back from O’Connell. Despite a last ditch attempt for second, it was third for Brendan just an incredible 0.1 of a second back!

This forest rallying is close, and Ger Lucey’s fine run in the older car netted fourth, moving into the Valvoline series lead. County Tyrone’s Darren McKelvey had an excellent showing in fifth, with Niall Henry less than two seconds behind, making it a great success for the team.

The two-wheel drive race was won by Killarney’s Rob Duggan in his front wheel drive Peugeot 208 R2.

Winner of the rallytrader.ie/ Kumho tyres Junior category, collecting two tyres from Ears Motorsport Ireland was Alan Moran with his Peugeot 206 Cup Car.

Other important class winners were: Class 3-Emmett Lyons (Honda Integra), Class 4-Stephen Cullen- (Subaru Impreza), Class 6- Danny Creedon- (Subaru Impreza) Class 9- Colm Kearns (MK2 Escort), Class 10-David Beamish (Opel Corsa), Class 11F-James Lucey- (Honda Civic), Class 11R- Jason Walsh (Ford Escort). The championship race is now very open and interesting and on round three on May 7th, the crews will join the Northern Ireland Championship runners for the Tour of the Sperrins, which is back on gravel again.

2016 Valvoline Motorsport Ireland National Forest Rally Championship Round Two results:
1 Desi Henry/Liam Moynihan  Skoda Fabia R5  
2 Pat O'Connell/Mark Wiley  Mitsubishi Evo 9
3 Brendan Cumiskey/Ronan O'Kane  Ford Fiesta R5   
4 Gerard Lucey/JJ Cremin   Mitsubishi Evo 8 
5 Darren McKelvey/Graham Henderson Mitsubishi Evo 9 

Points after round two:
1 Gerard Lucey 34
2 Michael Carbin 31
3 Adrian Hetherington 30
4 John Gordon 24
5 Micky Conlon 24


2016 Valvoline Motorsport Ireland National Forest Rally Championship Remaining Calendar:
Round 3: 7th May - Tour of the Sperrins Forest Rally
Round 4: 14th August - Jim Walsh Memorial Cork Forest Rally
Round 5: 3rd September - Lakeland Forest Stages Rally
Round 6: 16th October - Mayo Forest Stages Rally
Round 7: 5th November - Glens of Antrim Forest Rally