Gravel Championship resumes with Cork Forest Rally

After a ten-week break, the 2025 Sligo Pallets Forest Rally Championship fires back into life this weekend as a bumper entry prepare for the hugely anticipated Jim Walsh Cork Forest Rally, and as the second half of the season begins there is a huge amount to play for in the hunt for Championship glory.

Based out of Kanturk, the Cork Motor Club event will see competitors tackle a high speed 70km route across eight stages, many of which are regarding as being amongst the best in the country, that snakes through the forest tracks and windfarm roads of the Boggeragh mountains. With over 110 entries received, the event boasts its biggest entry in over twenty years and maintains a growth in the Sligo Pallets Forest Rally Championship that has seen entries on all events to date this year rising by 15%.

After four rounds of the 2025 season, Jason Mitchell & Paddy McCrudden hold a commanding lead in the standings, taking maximum points in Carlow, Tipperary and Mayo to leave them with a ten-point advantage as they start this weekends Jim Walsh Cork Forest Rally with number one on the door and the memory of winning this event twelve months ago.

The Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 of Mitchell & McCrudden is followed by a similar machine of Cathan McCourt & Barry McNulty, the 2019 Forest Champions return sure to raise a few eyebrows as the pair arrive fresh from victory on the recent Down Rally, and Cathan featured right at the sharp end of proceedings last year when he appeared on the Lakeland Stages & Bushwhacker gravel events.

The defending Champions Derek Mackarel & Eamonn Creedon start third in their Ford Fiesta R5 as they aim to restart their Championship push after a disappointing start to the season, but they will have plenty of competition with Vivian Hamill & Andrew Grennan in a newer Ford Fiesta Rally2, Moonraker winner and former champions Pat O’Connell & Mark Wiley, the ever quick and NI Forest Champion Gareth Mimnagh & Barry McCarney as well as current third placed Championship crew of Stephen Dickson & Ben Teggart.

In the 2WD race, the entry once more is incredible impressive with any number of crews who could come out on top. Current Championship leaders Cian Caldwell & Paul McPhillips will be aiming to make a real mark on some of the countries quickest Gravel stages in their Peugeot 208 Rally4, but he has a huge battle with some incredibly experienced and quick competitors. Both Shane McGirr, navigated by Denver Rafferty in their incredible Lada VFTS, and David Condell, navigated in his Ford Escort Mk2 by Eugene Donnelly, have won the 2WD class on the Jim Walsh Cork Forest Rally before and will be gunning to reclaim their title.

Besides that trio, Hugh McQuaid & Declan Casey will most certantly be right in the heart of the battle having won the opening pair of 2WD events this season in Carlow and the Moonraker, while another Ford Escort MK2 of Sam Stewart & Alan Johnston will be hoping for a break in their run of bad luck and retirements that have perhaps hidden the true pace of the pair.

Right across the field, the inter-class battles are set to be fiercely contested as the prospect of victory at the end of the season looms, and that is especially true in Junior 1000 as over thirty youngsters prepare for their penultimate event of the season. Unable to compete on the Northern Irish rounds of the series, the title race is set to be decided on this weekend Cork event and the season ending Donegal Forest Rally on November 8th.

Championship leader Kyle Drury & Karl Egan lead the huge pack of 14–17-year-olds away with the aim to finally taste victory in a season that has seen them podium on every round to date, but they will have massive competition once again. Right behind them are James McShea & Grace O’Brien fresh from wins in Tipperary and Mayo, David Travers & Andy Purser looking to get back to the pace that saw them win in Carlow & The Moonraker while Oisin McShane & Fabian McShane will be aiming to put down a marker in a title defence season that has been a complete write off so far this year.

With a bumper entry and an incredible set of stages, the excitement is at fever pitch as the 2025 Sligo Pallets Forest Rally Championship returns, and the action is set to kick off Sunday Morning with the first car due to leave Kanturk at 08:20 on route to what is expected to be a spectacular day of Gravel Rallying.