Desi Henry ready to take advantage of Maiden City showers during the NI Rally

Desi Henry in his Citroen C3

Jason Craig

Top seed Desi Henry has said the weather will play a “big part” in the outcome of Saturday’s Maiden City Stages, round three of the McGrady Insurance Northern Ireland Rally Championship.

The event is reverting to a closed-road format for the first time since 2022 — the year that Henry triumphed on it — and comprises two loops of three tests around the Claudy and Artigarvan areas.

Rain showers are a possibility at some point and, should they arrive, the Citroen driver has everything crossed it can give him the advantage he needs to hold off a strong line-up of Rally2 machinery.

Typically, the first car on the road enjoys more consistent grip levels — but as mud and stones are pulled onto the road by every passing car because of corner cutting, this becomes less the case.

“The stages look good, with the first one a new addition that has a bit of everything in it. Stages two and three have run before. Ultimately, the weather will play a big part in the final result and with the forecast giving rain, the roads will turn quite mucky should it arrive,” explained Henry.

“Obviously, the higher up the leaderboard we can finish, the better but ultimately, we are trying to get more miles in the Citroen so that we can continue to up our speed and improve things.”

Being run close to home, reigning Irish Tarmac Rally Champion Callum Devine has entered and starts at number two in his Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 in front of current Northern Ireland Champion Jonny Greer. Gareth Sayers, Stuart Biggerstaff and Ryan Loughran feature in Ford Fiesta Rally2s, with Aidan Wray, Jason Mitchell, Peadar Hurson and Aaron McLaughlin all relying on Polo power.

“With Callum there, it is going to be a good benchmark for us to work off,” said Henry. “I’m looking forward to having a bit of a race and coming away with a good result as the rally has been quite good to us in the past. The priority is to get a good, strong finish. We have had a small issue with the car for the last few rallies, we couldn’t get to the bottom of it, but we think we have it sorted.

“We will aim to get through the first few stages, see what our pace is like and if we think we are in a position to fight for the win with the others we will, but Callum is going well at the moment.”

Sponsored by Eakin Bros, the Maiden City Stages has a start time of 10.09, and concludes with the podium celebrations after 3pm at Robinson Concrete on the Cumber Road.

Maiden City Stages – Top 10 Seeds

1 Desi Henry / Shane Byrne (Citroen C3 Rally2)

2 Callum Devine / Noel O’Sullivan (Volkswagen Polo GTI R5)

3 Jonathan Greer / Niall Burns (Citroen C3 Rally)

4 Gareth Sayers / Gareth Gilchrist (Ford Fiesta Rally2)

5 Jason Mitchell / Paddy McCrudden (Volkswagen Polo GTI R5)

6 Aidan Wray / TBA (Volkswagen Polo GTI R5)

7 Stuart Biggerstaff / Anthon Nestor (Ford Fiesta Rally2)

8 Ryan Loughran / Gareth Doherty (Ford Fiesta Rally2)

9 Peadar Hurson / Damien Connolly (Volkswagen Polo GTI R5)

10 Aaron McLaughlin / Darren Curran (Volkswagen Polo GTI R5)