Desi Henry wins 2026 Tyrone Stages Rally as Omagh crew Alan Smyth takes third
Desi Henry and co-driver Dean O'Sullivan won the Cookstown Motor Club's 2026 Tyrone Stages Rally near Benone on Saturday 6 June, finishing more than 23 seconds ahead of Mark Kelly and Will Atkins. Henry drove a Ford Fiesta Rally2, while Kelly competed in a Skoda Fabia. Omagh's Alan Smyth and navigator Emmet Sherry completed the overall podium in a Volkswagen Polo GTI R5, giving local supporters a front-running result at a rally staged close to Lough Foyle. The event counted towards the Sligo Pallets Border Championship.
The podium tells the main sporting story
The winner's margin of over 23 seconds is substantial enough to indicate Henry and O'Sullivan had established clear control by the finish. It was not the half-second duel seen in April's Circuit of Ireland Rally or the final-stage contest at Loughgall in July. Kelly and Atkins nonetheless finished second against competitive Rally2 opposition, while Smyth and Sherry took the final podium position. Those are the verified placements; the contemporary report does not justify inventing an unsupported sequence of stage-by-stage lead changes.
Smyth's performance was important for its local connection. The Omagh crew competed in an IN Sport-prepared Volkswagen Polo, a different model from the winning Fiesta and runner-up Skoda. Being third overall on a home-region event is not equivalent to winning, but it places a Tyrone competitor among the best finishers at a rally attracting drivers from across Northern Ireland and beyond. The difference between the top three cars and crews supplies genuine detail about the field without requiring claims about mechanical setup that were not reported.
An event connecting several kinds of motorsport
The entry included four-time British Touring Car champion Colin Turkington on his stage-rally debut. With Rory Kennedy as co-driver, Turkington won the historic category in a BMW M3. That was a legitimate class victory but separate from Henry's overall win. Aaron Johnston, by then a two-time 2026 WRC-winning navigator with Takamoto Katsuta, also entered as a driver in a Toyota Corolla. His appearance added further depth, although the published local summary does not establish an exact finishing place for him and should not be used to invent one.
The Benone venue meant a part of the north-west coast more often associated with leisure trips hosted a round of a competitive rally championship. The Cookstown club's programme drew both modern Rally2 crews and historic entrants. Reporting those categories separately is important. Henry's Fiesta, Turkington's classic BMW and Johnston's Toyota Corolla did not compete for identical class honours, even though they appeared at the same meeting.
How it fits the 2026 rally season
The Tyrone Stages followed the April Circuit of Ireland and preceded the summer Northern Ireland Rally Championship rounds at Loughgall and Rallye Lecale. Those events brought high-profile contests involving Jonny Greer, Sam Moffett and Cathan McCourt, and Greer eventually secured his sixth national title. The Tyrone event's championship connection was different—it counted for the Border series—so Henry's victory should not be presented as a win in the Northern Ireland Rally Championship unless that specific eligibility is established.
