The second round of the 2014 Valvoline National Forest Rally Championship takes place in Ballyvourney this Sunday April 13th.

The Munster Car Club has moved the event to a new Headquarters; The Abbey Hotel Ballyvourney on the Cork/ Kerry county bounds offering 6 stages (3 repeated) in the Mullaghanish Mountain landscape.  These forests have not been rallied in 7 years so like the first round it’s virtually new territory for everyone setting the scene for a very exciting rally.

Clerk of the Course Jim Murphy & his team have devised a compact route of 52 stage kms & only 57 road kms.  The opening stage Gleanndave is a short tyre warmer ahead of the mammoth ss2 Caherdowney - boasting a thrilling 16 kms of fast, technical road which will surely impact on the leaderboard.  The third stage is a 5km sprint through “Derrinauling”.  The first car starts from Parc Ferme (Scoil Ghobnatan) at 10:15.  After the first 3 stages there is the lunchtime service at Ballyvourney Business Park before repeating the 3 stage loop.  The first cars are due back at the finish ramp outside rally HQ at 15:45.

Top seed Owen Murphy (Evo 9) will face stiff opposition from the likes of Pat O’Connell, Desi Henry, Brendan Comiskey, Josh Moffett, Andrew Purcell and Peter McCullagh in various Evo’s.  Martin Cairns is entered in his latest spec Impreza S14 WRC and could cause quite a stir.  Daniel O’Brien is up grading to a ’05 spec Focus WRC, Marty McKenna is listed in his Impreza S8 WRC, Liam Regan is coming with his unusual yet very competitive Peugeot 206 4x4.  Some local entries include Daniel Cronin (Evo 9) and Ger Lucey (Evo 8).  Tarmac ace Darragh O’Riordan has entered his first forest rally and hopes to hire something for fun.  The 2WD category should also be exciting with Shane McGirr in his rapid Starlet set to do battle yet again with the Escorts of Mickey Conlon, James Coleman and Ollie Williams to name but a few.