RALLYING

Desi Henry and Liam Moynihan won the Eakin Bros Brian James Trailers Stages Rally, round three of the McGrady Insurance Motorsport UK Northern Ireland Stage Rally Championship!

The Skoda Fabia R5 mounted crew grabbed the lead from the start and never looked back as they powered to a 14.1-second win over Callum Devine and Brian Hoy.

Henry, who opted to register for the 2019 Championship before the start of the event, secured maximum points in the series and plans to enter round four’s Down Rally in July.

“We were trying a lot of different things with the car today,” Henry revealed.

“I wasn’t happy with the car at the West Cork Rally so one of the reasons I came here was to see if we could do anything to improve the setup.”

“We were having a bit of a problem with the car crashing out over the bumps and jumps,” he explained.

“Where these cars are designed, you don’t get the same bumps that we have in this country but I think we’ve done a good job.

“We made a lot of changes to the suspension and it seems to be working very well now.”

It wasn’t a straightforward affair for the rally winners as a trip up a bank caused some panel damage to the front of their Skoda on stage two.

They also lost their rear bumper but the damage was all cosmetic as they powered to the rally spoils.

Callum Devine and Brian Hoy claimed second overall after an early battle with Philip Allen and Mark Kane.

Allen was using the event as a confidence builder after struggling to become accustomed to his previous car.

The fourth round of the series gets underway in July.