Dogleap Rally 2026 Preview
Maiden City Motor Club’s classic Dogleap Rally hosts the final round of the 2026 Trailer Parts & Spares Irish Forest Rally Championship. The Limavady-based event promises to provide its usual flat-out thrills, with crews visiting four stages two times, including the legendary Cam Forest.
The previous round in Laois proved decisive for the overall championship battle, which was an almighty battle between Josh Moffett, Mark Donnelly and Jordan Hone. After a driveshaft failure forced Donnelly and Martin Brady to park their Skoda Fabia, and Hone and father Paul struggled for early pace, Josh and Andy Hayes were left with a comfortable cushion and just had to manage their lead. Josh secured his third Forestry Championship, as well as a highly impressive treble of national championships this season.
With Moffett taking a well-earned break after a highly successful season, Jordan and Paul Hone will lead our championship contenders away on their home event as they look for their first maximum score of the season. David Condell and Michael Coady had a great day out in Laois and will be looking to build on their pace in the Skoda Fabia, and will undoubtedly keep Jordan on his toes.
The battle for overall honours will have a lot of interest as our regular championship crews are joined by the Northern Irish Gravel Series regulars, as well as 2025 Champion Jason Mitchell who will be making his first appearance of the season. Former J1000 stand-out Casey Jay Coleman will also return to the woods in a Ford Fiesta Rally2 as he prepares for his European Championship Rally2 debut in Portugal next weekend.
While the overall honours have already been decided, there is still plenty to fight for for many of our championship crews. Jack Harris has already sealed Class 2 in the Championship but will be looking to improve his Billy Coleman Award chances by wrapping up the overall 2WD honours. It would be an incredible achievement by Harris, who has put his front-wheel-drive Fiesta Rally4 right up there among more powerful rear-wheel-drive machinery all season long. He will be challenged for 2WD honours on the Dogleap by Paddy McToal, who has been the stand-out 2WD performer on our Northern rounds so far, and Hugh McQuaid who needs a finish to wrap up Class 13. McQuaid can still be caught by Shane McCanney, although McCanney would need to take maximum points in the class and to have McQuaid not finish.
Elsewhere, Class 11F has been one of the most interesting class battles of the season and it is fitting that it will go right down to the wire. The trio of Mickey Joe Browne, Christy Butler and Eugene Ward have been trading points all season and while Browne has been the stand-out performer in terms of raw pace, he has not been able to convert that to finishes and is now out of contention after another retirement in Laois. Butler and Ward have been trading times on the stages all year and as it stands, Butler leads the way by three points. With both having one non-finish to their name already this season, it will go right down to the wire on the Dogleap stages.
Tickets are now available for the Forestry Championship prizegiving in Clonmel on the 21st of November. For further information, see the pinned post on the Championship Facebook page.
Want to keep up to date with the Trailer Parts & Spares Irish Forest Rally Championship? Check out the Championship Website at www.IRLForestRally.com, the online Sportity Noticeboard at IrishForestChamp, or check out the Championship on Facebook & Instagram.
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