J1000 Champion Murphy to drive Fiesta R2 on Lakelands Rally

One of the big success stories in Irish Motorsport over the past couple of years has been the implementation of a J1000 Junior category in the Valvoline Motorsport Ireland National Forestry Championship. This is a unique and exclusive initiative in Irish Rallying to assist in developing future stars of the sport from the age of 15 years by giving them experience of competing on forestry stage rallies.

Jason Murphy from Co. Mayo who won the M.O’Brien Plant Hire J1000 Championship for the second year in succession will make the leap into the bigger league in the upcoming Enniskillen based Lakeland Stages Rally on 2^nd September. He will be taking up the prize from winning last year’s championship which is a funded drive in a Ford Fiesta R2 courtesy of M.O’Brien Plant Hire for the Lakeland Stages. Thanks to the continued support of M.O’Brien Plant Hire, the J1000 championship is flourishing and it offers the younger driver a great opportunity to start out in a more cost effective environment. Long standing supporters of the Forestry Championship, Kumho Tyres will provide the tyres for the R2 car which gives Jason the chance to test his pace against the R2 championship regulars. The Championship organisers are grateful to Clonakilty Blackpudding for helping to source a car for the prize drive.

Jason is delighted with the prize drive and said “Getting a drive means a lot as it would be difficult to afford to rally an R2 at present, and I’m really looking forward to it. The Forestry championship is a brilliant championship and hopefully more drivers will come on board for the J1000s in 2019. It’s a very cost effective way to go rallying and with all cars equal, the competition is great. This year’s series was much tougher with Peter, Rory and Aoife pushing all the way, but the experience of competing on last year’s championship was of huge benefit to me. I’d like to thank the various sponsors for helping to make the drive on the Lakelands happen, and something like this is a great incentive for any young driver starting out.”