McErlean and Treacy secure a strong seventh on dramatic Rally Finland
Josh McErlean and Eoin Treacy finished seventh overall on Rally Finland after a thrilling battle with 2024 world champion Thierry Neuville on the iconic Finnish stages.
A clean start to the 75th edition of Rally Finland put the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy crew eighth overall. Friday afternoon's downpour of rain complicated things when McErlean's windscreen misted up and cost them over 20 seconds. They utilised a makeshift cloth-on-a-stick solution to limit the time loss. The Irish duo recovered with a fifth-fastest time on stage nine to hold seventh overnight.
McErlean momentarily held sixth on Saturday but was unable to hold off Thierry Neuville through the final 16-kilometre stage of the day. Two clean runs through the 30-kilometre Himos-Jämsä, seventh-fastest each time, sealed seventh overall and a valuable points haul.
“Rally Finland complete,” said McErlean. “It has been a crazy weekend with the number of accidents along the way, but we've kept our noses clean and to finish seventh overall is a really positive result.”
“Friday was tricky with the weather, but after that we found a good pace and were fighting with Thierry throughout Saturday. Hopefully we can carry that into South America and come away with another good result.”
M-Sport and Academy team-mates Jon Armstrong and Shane Byrne experienced the highs and lows of Rally Finland in what was Armstrong's first appearance on the iconic event in ten years. The Ford Puma Rally1 duo started positively before an innocent-looking off on stage three sent their car into a ditch from which they couldn't extract themselves, ending their Friday prematurely.
Armstrong returned on Saturday and made the most of Finland’s famous gravel itinerary. Staying within McErlean and Neuville's competitive times, the Fermanagh driver quickly became accustomed to Finnish driving. A sixth-fastest time on the Power Stage on Sunday, fastest of the M-Sport crews, rounded off a memorable weekend.
“Rally Finland was an incredible event,” said Armstrong. “It is such a fast rally and experiencing those roads for the first time in a Rally1 car was a real privilege. To be part of what is likely to be the final Rally Finland for this generation of Rally1 cars was something really special. After the disappointment on Friday, it was good to get plenty of mileage on Saturday and Sunday. We're not a million miles away from the front, but the top guys are absolutely flying through those stages, so it's all about continuing to build experience.”
In Junior WRC, Craig Rahill and Conor Smith showed podium pace before their rally ended in disappointment. Fourth- and third-fastest times on stages three and four put them third, just 15.4 seconds from the lead, before a roll on the next Hoho test ended their challenge.
“I just got caught out and lost the rear on a fast left-hander,” explained Rahill. “When I tried to correct it, I ran out of road, hit a tree on the inside and rolled.”
Irish co-driver Aaron Johnston finished sixth overall alongside Japan’s Takamoto Katsuta despite losing time with limited visibility in Friday's rain. They had moved up to fifth before making contact with a tree on the Power Stage, which dropped them back to sixth.
Cavan's James Fulton and his Japanese driver, Yuki Yamamoto, were running fourth in WRC2 Challenger before retiring on stage 13 with radiator damage. They returned under super-rally regulations to complete the rally on Sunday.