Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy West Cork Preview
Ryan MacHugh, who is top seed RC4 for the West Cork Rally.
Some Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy members will get to experience the challenges of night rallying for the first time this weekend. The 2024 Irish Tarmac Rally Championship heads south to Clonakilty for West Cork Rally’s Saint Patrick’s weekend classic. The hugely popular event will take place over three days for the first time with crews taking on extra stages on Friday including a loop in darkness. Leading the Academy charge in West Cork is reigning Junior World Rally Champions William Creighton and his co-driver Liam Regan. The pair have just announced an assault on the British Rally Championship in the same M-Sport Ford Fiesta Rally2 that they are using at World Rally Championship event this season. Before their international campaign gets fully underway the pair have decided to enter West Cork. Creighton’s experience of the event stretches as far back as 2016 behind the wheel of a Peugeot 208 R2, before tackling the event last year in his Fiesta Rally3, finishing a staggering ninth overall. This will be his first outing in a Rally2 on closed roads in Ireland.
“This will be my first time competing at an ITRC event in a top category car and there is a huge buzz about the series with the level of competition this year, so I have no doubt it is going to be an enjoyable St. Patrick’s weekend. The support on the stages is always amazing and it is great to be able to catch up with all the people that have been supporting me on my Junior WRC journey over the years,” said Creighton. “Together with the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy, we have a fantastic WRC2 programme lined up in the M-Sport Fiesta Rally2. The WRC2 category is extremely competitive and with our next World Championship event taking place on asphalt in Croatia, West Cork provides a fantastic opportunity to get our first kilometres on tarmac in the car. The event is tough and it is going to be a hugely competitive three days of rallying amongst the ITRC regulars, but it is valuable seat time I`ll be aiming for and using it as an extended test session towards the rest of the season.”
Reigning Triton Showers Motorsport Ireland National junior rally champion Jack McKenna steps up to the big class for the first time. After years of campaigning Honda Civics and the odd outing in a Ford Escort Mk2, the Monaghan-based driver will make his debut in a Ford Fiesta R5 this weekend.
“I am looking forward to it, it is going to be a completely new experience. Up to now I have only driven a Ford Escort and a Honda Civic so it is going to be completely different but I cannot wait to get at it,” said McKenna. “‘I have never been in West Cork before but I have heard great things and it has always been a rally on my to-do list. To get to do it in a Ford Fiesta R5 is more than I could have imagined when I was competing in the Junior Honda Civic last year.”
As ever, the bulk of the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy crews are competing in Class RC4 for Rally4 cars. Academy drivers make up five of this 15-strong class and three of them have registered for the new-for-2024 Stellantis Motorsport Rally Cup. Ryan MacHugh and Declan Boyle are the top Rally4 seeds in their Ford Fiesta Rally4 after sealing a last-minute victory in Galway over Keelan Grogan. He contested the West Cork Rally in 2022 but this will be his first experience of night stages. MacHugh and Boyle are looking forward to the challenge of being the top seed in the three-day event.
“To add another day to them great stages is going to be exciting,” said MacHugh. “I have never driven in the dark but it is always an exciting new challenge that has to be learned in rallying. From watching the DVD the stages seem incredibly fast stages and tricky. I done West Cork in 2022 so I kind of know what the stages are like down there and being away first on the road for the second international [rally of the year] is something we are really looking forward to.”
Billy Coleman Award finalist Craig Rahill and co-driver Conor Smith are seeded just behind MacHugh in a similar Ford Fiesta Rally4. While the Cavan crew has some experience of night stages, the Bushwhacker last September being an example, they continue their steep learning curve in Rally4 machinery. Focus this year is on the Motorsport Ireland Junior Rally Series and perfecting pacenote making.
“We wanted to do West Cork to get good seat time in the car on tarmac and see where our pace is at against the lads, we felt more comfortable as the day progressed in Mayo but will be looking to try out different setups and try different things over the weekend,” said Rahill. “This will be our second time writing our own notes and we were very happy with them in Mayo. We will be looking to improve on them in some areas for next weekend, this will be our second three-day event as we did Donegal last year, it will be a long week and a tough weekend.”
Grogan and co-driver Ayrton Sherlock return to action in West Cork for the first time since the Killarney Forestry Rally in their Peugeot 208 Rally4. They will be also chasing points in the Stellantis Cup and like MacHugh, have some night driving experience.
“There is also an added excitement with this being the opening round of the new Stellantis Cup. This has brought a big Rally4 entry so it is looking like it will be a very competitive weekend,” said the Leitrim-based driver. “I have only done two stages in the dark on the Bushwhacker last year so it will be interesting to see the difference between tarmac and gravel in the dark. I think we will just have to make sure our pacenotes are written well and then have the confidence to drive to them. The new three-day format will be tough on both man and machine.”
Cian Caldwell and Liam Egan will be hoping to put their recent run of bad luck behind them and like Grogan are also registered for the Stellantis Cup.
“I am looking forward to starting the Stellantis Cup Championship in West Cork,” said the County Meath-based driver. “Two night stages to start the weekend off will be something new to me so loads to be learned. I have always wanted to do a night stage so I am looking forward to the challenge. I completed the recce and some great stages lie ahead – they are very fast and flowing."
Kyle McBride and co-driver Darragh Mullen are the third Academy crew in a Peugeot and they have aspirations to compete in Europe this season. However, the last time the three Peugeot drivers went head-to-head in Killarney last month it was the young Donegal driver who emerged victorious. But that event was on gravel and this is his first event on tar in the new-for-2024 Peugeot. It is also his first time doing a three-day event.
He said: “I am really looking forward to the weekend, first time doing this event and my first time doing a three-day event. It is going to be a baptism of fire.”
The West Cork Rally is all about getting used to the car and honing his pacenote skills.
“We will improve all our notes and the car set-up throughout the weekend. The whole idea of doing this event is trying to get the car set up properly and try out things and see what works best and what does not work so it is going to be a very big learning curve this weekend” added McBride.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
It is a busy time for Motorsport Ireland Academy driver Josh McErlean. Late last week he announced that he will join Creighton in WRC 2. The 24-year-old ace will start his third season in the coveted World Rally Championship, but following three years with the Hyundai brand, he will switch to Škoda, run by reigning WRC2 champions Toksport World Rally Team. Joined by James Fulton for his reinvigorated campaign, McErlean will begin his season at the WRC Vodafone Rally de Portugal in early May.
“I`m super excited that not only will I be back in the WRC in 2024, but I`ll be joining Toksport in a Škoda Fabia RS Rally2” said McErlean. “This has given me a new level of energy and fresh motivation, which in turn brings a wealth of optimism to both me and the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy team.”
Before that McErlean will head to America for the Rally of the 100 Acre Wood in Potosi, Missouri on March 15 and 16. There he will co-drive for Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy founder and patron, John Coyne. After a two-year break, while he focused on building up the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy, Coyne will return to competition in the American Rally Association National Championship 2024. The 73-year-old, who resides in California, has been competing in rallying for some 55 years and will start his fourth season in the ARA National Championship in a Hyundai i20N Rally2 which will be run by PCRS Rallysport. John will be accompanied throughout the season by Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy co-driver Eoin Treacy. As Eoin had a prior commitment to co-driving for his father in the Rally Costa Brava in Spain the same weekend, McErlean will stand in for this initial event.
Meanwhile, Fulton has been named a brand ambassador for Skoda Carlow for the year ahead thanks to fellow rally driver James Boland.
Elsewhere in Northern Ireland over the weekend, Billy Coleman Award winner Jack Brennan and co-driver John McGrath tackled the second round of the Northern Ireland Rally Championship at Bishopscourt. They were in the mix for Class 2 honours but were forced to retire on the penultimate test.
Rally Academy co-driver Conor Mohan, better known for his exploits in the Junior World Rally Championship alongside Eamonn Kelly won his home Navigation Trial on Saturday night.
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
Aoife Raftery represented the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy at a special event to mark International Woman’s Day in Portlaoise on Saturday. Hosted by the Motorsport Ireland Women in Motorsport Commission the networking event brought women from all disciplines of motorsport together. Raftery and Rally Academy co-ordinator Kathleen Kennedy were interviewed on stage by Motorsport Ireland Women in Motorsport Commission secretary Noelle Horan in front of around 130 guests.
“It was great to attend the event Motorsport Ireland Women in Motorsport Commission event on Saturday. I got to meet lots of wonderful ladies and hear all their stories,” said Raftery. “Hopefully, we can see more women getting involved in motorsport. It was great to explain to everybody in the room how the Academy works, the idea behind it and the great work it is doing with Irish rally drivers by getting more young drivers out into the European and World stage. It was fantastic to be able to share my own story and also to hear Kathleen explaining how it all the work and what goes on behind the scenes.”
Later in the evening, the Galway-based rally driver hosted a panel discussion with junior and entry-level participants , with a particular emphasis on Junior 1000 Rallying with several teenage girls who attended the networking event.
“It was great to be able to highlight the girls on the stage and hear their stories of how they got involved and their plans for the future,” added the Craughwell native. “They all spoke excellent and it's really exciting to see what lies ahead in the future for them.”