McErlean ignites WRC season with eighth in Canaries
A strong performance by Josh McErlean and Eoin Treacy was rewarded with eighth overall on the Canary Islands Rally - their best result of the World Rally Championship so far this year.
The Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy crew made an encouraging start, posting the fifth-fastest time on Thursday evening's opening super-special stage. McErlean spent Friday finding his rhythm, ending an incident-free day ninth overall.
His healthy competition with team-mate Jon Armstrong continued into Saturday amid the quickly changing Canary Islands weather conditions.
McErlean opened Sunday in impressive fashion with the seventh-fastest and confirmed his eighth overall finish after setting an equal time to Adrien Fourmaux on the Power Stage.
"It has been a really positive weekend for us," said McErlean. "We had a clean rally for once, which represents a big step up in performance compared to previous events. We're looking forward to Portugal - a rally we really enjoy and where we hope to deliver a strong result.”
Jon Armstrong and Shane Byrne survived a challenging rally, fighting back from moments and issues to finish 11th overall, missing out on World Rally Championship points by just 2.8 seconds.
Armstrong survived a scare on stage four when low-grip levels meant his Ford Puma Rally1 understeered beyond the racing line. The Fermanagh driver saved the overshoot by spinning the Puma around safely on an escape road, but dropped 16 seconds to McErlean. A driveshaft issue on Friday's final stage left the MI Rally Academy crew with front-wheel drive only through the tight stadium super-special.
Armstrong shone on Saturday's opener, setting the eighth-fastest time between the Hyundais of Neuville and Sordo. Quick reactions saved his weekend on stage 14 after another understeer moment sent their Puma towards an armco barrier. Armstrong quickly adjusted the line to miss the armco, but the incident dropped them to 16th.
Sunday's fightback finished with a seventh-fastest time on the Power Stage, climbing back to 11th overall.
"It was a bit of a tricky weekend," Armstrong reflected. "The stages were more technical than expected, with longer corners and direction changes - that is where we struggled most to extract pace. Now it is about regrouping and looking ahead to Portugal and getting back onto gravel.”
County Tyrone co-driver Aaron Johnston finished fourth overall alongside Takamoto Katsuta, with the Toyota duo finishing the event with a runner-up time on the Power Stage.
Cavan's James Fulton had been running eighth in WRC2 alongside Yuki Yamamoto before an armco impact on Saturday's final stage cost them two minutes.
