McBride claims maiden Junior ERC podium in Wales
Kyle McBride and Liam Callaghan secured their maiden Junior ERC podium on Rali Ceredigion.
A stall on stage three’s final hairpin cost the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy team, losing vital time against the 16 Rally4 starters when their Peugeot 208 Rally4 struggled to restart.
They quickly bounced back straightaway with a string of top-five stage times to move up from eighth to eventually finish third in Junior ERC, their best result in the series to date.
The Billy Coleman Award winner ended the rally with two third-fastest times to seal the result.
"It has been a really good weekend and we are really happy with the result, our first Junior ERC podium," said McBride. "The class has been really competitive and we are really happy with our pace. The car and pacenotes worked well all weekend, we have no issues at all.”
In ERC3, Casey Jay Coleman and Killian McArdle narrowly missed out on a Rally3 victory by just 1.6 seconds after an epic weekend-long battle with Finland's Ville Vatanen.
The MI Rally Academy crew traded times with Vatanen throughout the event, the drama peaking ahead of the final stage when the Irish duo went 11.1 seconds quicker than their rival on Ceredigion's penultimate test. Vatanen responded on the final stage to deny Coleman's victory hopes.
"It was a really nice battle all weekend in Ceredigion with Ville, probably the most crazy tarmac rally I've ever done," said Coleman.
"Of course to miss out on the win by 1.6 seconds after 191 km of competition you can't help but feel a little disappointed but I think we can be proud of our performance throughout the rally and our speed this year too.”
Academy co-driver Darragh Mullen helped Oran England claim his first Junior BRC win on Rali Ceredigion's Saturday leg, also securing victory in the Stellantis Motorsport UK Trophy for Leg One. The crew took a steady approach throughout, clawing back a 15-second deficit to move into the lead by the end of Saturday, when they also sat sixth in Rally4 amongst the European Rally Championship competitors.
Sunday brought disappointment when England and Mullen slid off the road on stage 15 and were forced to retire, ending what had been a positive weekend on a low note.
"Heading into Saturday, the plan remained the same, have a clean, steady run and gradually build the pace," reflected Mullen. "We certainly achieved that goal. It certainly wasn't the way we wanted to finish the event, but there are still plenty of positives to take away from the weekend and, more importantly, plenty of lessons learned for future events.”
Back in Ireland, Jack Harris and Aaron O'Regan claimed a start-to-finish Class 2 victory on the Lakeland Stages Rally, managing their pace from stage one through to stage six to secure the Rally4 win.
"We had a good but tricky day's racing at Lakeland's with very changeable conditions," said Harris. "The main focus for the day was to claim max points for Class 2, we managed our pace from stage one right through to stage six picking up the Rally4 win. We now reset and go again for the Bushwhacker in just two weeks' time to battle it out for Class 2 honours.”
Dylan Harrington claimed top Rally3 car and Class 4 with his driver Jack Brennan.
"We had a good steady day out in the Lakeland's yesterday over three lovely committed stages," said Harrington. "We started off a bit cautious in the morning over the loose gravel but had a good go over the second pass. Thanks to the NCRS lads in service and the Academy.”
Ross Ryan and James Deane recovered from an early double puncture to show strong pace on Saturday afternoon, finishing just one second off the fastest Rally4 time on the final stage.
"Good to get out and try see a bit of pace gained on gravel," said Ryan. "Unfortunately a double puncture on stage one would set our seat time back but still a good day out in Enniskillen.”
