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The Irish Sun
01-05-2025
- Automotive
- The Irish Sun
Irish WRC duo and their car are star guests at the MI Rally Academy J1000 Development Day at Mondello Park
THE recent Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy J1000 Development Day at Mondello Park was a huge success. There were 31 Junior 1000 competitors from the Motorsport Ireland Junior Rally Series and Forest Rally Championship taking part in the academy's latest development day with training workshops including driver, fitness, performance and equipment coaching. Advertisement And as an added bonus M-Sport's Ford Puma Rally1 was in attendance too, but not just as a centre piece to be enjoyed. Irish World Rally Championship duo Josh McErlean and Eoin Treacy were also at Mondello offering passenger runs in this amazing machine. 4 WRC FUTURE STARS: WRC drivers Josh McErlean and Eoin Treacy with MI Rally Academy founder John Coyne plus drivers from the FIA Rally pyramid and J1000 Credit: Darren Liggett I was invited along by Red Bull Ireland as both Josh and Eoin are athletes of the energy drink company, and I was one of the lucky punters who got to enjoy two very hot, but also very wet, laps around Mondello. Also on track was a Hyundai i20 Rally2, usually seen in action with MI Rally Academy founder and patron John Coyne at the wheel. Advertisement European Rally Championship contender Jon Armstrong did demonstration runs before academy members sampled Rally2 power on the slippery circuit. While the excitement of seeing McErlean power-slide his WRC car around Mondello's rain-soaked track unsurprisingly stole the show, there were a host of special guests and visitors present at the venue. The J1000 crews were joined by their friends and families as they rubbed shoulders with a host of media representatives, podcasters, influencers, Red Bull Ireland and national broadcaster RTE. As J1000 rallying in Ireland continues to go from strength to strength, with both entries and competitiveness increasing, the development day was another key step in recognising its importance to and close relationship with the MI Rally Academy. Advertisement Most read in Motors 4 LET LOOSE: M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 car going sideways in the wet around Mondello Credit: MI Rally Academy So as well as showcasing J1000 and the MI Rally Academy's WRC crew of McErlean and Treacy, another highlight was the first time the FIA's complete Rally Pyramid was on display in Ireland at the same time. Mondello was packed with Rally5 cars right up to the Rally1 Puma, and the teenage J1000 crews also got to bring their rally-specification hot-hatches to the event. The event was held a couple of days after the two-year anniversary of the passing of WRC driver Craig Breen, who was a great supporter of the MI Rally Academy. Advertisement So it was no surprise to see so many of the drivers all wearing 'Breenie' bobble hats in honour of their Irish rallying hero. With academy members competing in Rally4, Rally3, Rally2 and Rally1 championships this year, cars in attendance included Craig Rahill's front-running Junior European Rally Championship Peugeot 208 Rally4 as well as Coyne's Hyundai i20 Rally2. Coyne, who travelled over from his home in the USA for the special occasion, had been in action on the Moonraker Forest Rally four days earlier where he finished in 11th place. 4 DREAM TEAM: WRC driver Josh McErlean and his co-pilot Eoin Treacy pictured with Motorsport Ireland members Credit: MI Rally Academy Advertisement The 1982 Irish Tarmac Rally champion also finished fourth in the 1982 Circuit of Ireland Rally, one minute behind WRC legend Henri Toivonen, and ahead of Billy Coleman, Hannu Mikkola and Ari Vatanen. Coyne was also in action in the i20 Rally2 on the Circuit of Ireland over the weekend along with MI Rally Academy co-driver Killian McArdle. And after Friday and Saturday's asphalt stages were complete they brought their i20 home in 18th. Speaking afterwards, Coyne said: 'Happy with 18th overall, 10th RC2 on my first tarmac rally in six years. After a one-minute-20-second off on SS1 we dropped to 69th overall. Advertisement Read more on the Irish Sun 'It took some time to gain confidence, but I'm happy that my pace improved steadily with our best stage result being 11th-fastest on SS10.' See: 4 GENERATION GAME: WRC driver Josh McErlean with MI Rally Academy founder and patron John Coyne Credit: MI Rally Academy
Irish Examiner
27-04-2025
- Automotive
- Irish Examiner
Motorsport: Josh McErlean crash puts end to top 10 finish on Rally Islas Canarias
Josh McErlean's bid for a top ten finish on Rally Islas Canarias, round four of the World Rally Championship ended on the first stage of the final leg when he crashed his Ford Puma Rally1 against an Armco barrier. The event belonged to Finland's Kalle Rovanpera and his co-driver Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1), who rediscovered their form and with fifteen stage wins (from eighteen stages) have moved from sixth in the series to second - behind their team mates and series leaders Welsh ace Elfyn Evans and co-driver Scott Martin. The Toyota Gazoo Racing Team locked out the top four places with Sebastien Ogier finishing 53.5s behind Rovanpera and Japan's Takamoto Katsuta and his Northern Ireland co-driver Aaron Johnson completing the top quartet. Saturday's leg saw Rovanpera tighten his grip on the rally with another masterful display as he continued to impose his authority that yielded six fastest times from the seven stages with a lead of 45.2s in a Toyota GR Yaris top four. Only series leader Elfyn Evans prevented Rovanpera from completing a clean sweep of top stage times over two days when he was best on the super special inside the Gran Canaria Arena. Sebastien Ogier consolidated second spot with Evans third. As the day concluded with Toyota holding the top five positions, Finland's Sami Pajari understeered into a wooden barrier on a left hander on the penultimate stage and damaged the front right wing of his Yaris. Katsuta subsequently inherited fourth to complete a Toyota top quartet. Rally leader Rovanpera said, "It's going really well, we made some really small changes to the car this afternoon and I felt even better than in the morning, so that was nice." Despite stalling on the final stage of the day, Adrien Fourmaux in fifth was best of the Hyundai outfit after both Thierry Neuville and Ott Tänak continued to struggle with set-up issues. Gregoire Munster lost over three minutes when his Ford Puma Rally1 ran wide and beached itself and was eventually pushed back on the road by several spectators and combined with Pajari's retirement, saw McErlean/Treacy move into 10th. Following the morning opener McErlean said, "The surface was changing quite a lot there. Just tried to trust the grip and keep on learning. We had one surprise against an Armco." Later and with the car having difficulty turning-in, they disconnected the front anti-toll bar to improve the handling. But, it all went wrong after just 4.9km of the opening stage of the final leg when their Ford Puma Rally1 crashed into the Armco barrier. Apologising for his mistake, he said, "It's been difficult from the start, we began to make small progress over the three days with the whole package. It's a big shame what happened today, a little too-ambitious pacenote meant we carried too much speed and ran wide into an Armco. We have learnt a lot about the car and my own driving this weekend. I look forward to getting back on the gravel now and into more familiar territory, everything should come a little more naturally and we can push on from here.' Rovanpera took the maximum 35 points from the event. "It's quite amazing, it has not been the best start of the season, but we are definitely, at least in these kinds of conditions, we are back now. The cars were so fast. I enjoyed it - a super result for the whole team.' Evans' consistency gave him his fourth podium position in as many events. Hyundai struggled through the entire event with handling issues, apparently related to differential settings with Adrien Fourmaux their top finisher in fifth place - two minutes and 30s. behind Rovanpera. Tanak's car required an engine change on Saturday night. The Wexford/Waterford crew of Eamonn Boland/MJ Morrissey (Ford Fiesta Rally2) were 22nd in the RC2 category. Elsewhere. Wicklow's Max Hart (Hyundai Elantra N TCR) took a twelfth and seventh place finish in the two races of the TCR Europe Series with Italian outfit Target Competition at the opening round in Portimao. Rally Islas Canarias (Round 4, World Rally Championship) Gran Canaria: 1. K. Rovanpera/J. Halttunen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) 2h 54m 39.9s; 2. S. Ogier/V. Landais (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1)+53.5s; 3. E. Evans/S. Martin (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1)+1m 17.1s; 4. T Katsuta/A. Johnston (Toyota GR Yaris RTally1)+1m 43.9s; 5. A. Fourmaux/A. Coria (Hyundai i20 N Rally1)+2m 31.0s; 6. O. Tanak/M Jarveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally)+3m. 11.4s; 7. T Neuville/M. Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1)+3m. 40.7s; 8. Y. Rossel/A. Dunand (Citroen C3 Rally2)+7m. 10.7s; 9. A. Cachon/B. Rozada (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2)+7m. 40.2s; N. Gryazin/K. Aleksandrov (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2)+7m. 58.4s.
