McErlean sixth on Acropolis Rally Greece after impressive drive
An agonising one-minute penalty denied Josh McErlean and Eoin Treacy a hard-earned fourth-place finish on Acropolis Rally Greece, but they still claimed a top six finish - their best World Rally Championship result to date.
The Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy crew started the demanding gravel rally in sixth before a pair of fourth-fastest times moved them into fourth by the end of Friday. They continued to shine on Saturday morning with McErlean the fastest M-Sport driver on stage ten. He carried that momentum into a thrilling battle for fourth with Adrien Fourmaux and Elfyn Evans.
A broken front right damper threatened to undo all their hard work, but McErlean and Treacy pulled off a superb roadside repair to secure the damaged component for Saturday's final 15-kilometre test.
They survived a further scare on the penultimate stage when they outbraked themselves and hung the Ford Puma Rally1 off the edge of the road. It cost them 30 seconds, but they managed to reverse back onto the stage and continue.
A post-event penalty dampened their celebrations of a fourth-place finish, but the Irish duo will take many positives from their weekend that still delivered important WRC points in sixth place.
Jon Armstrong and Shane Byrne traded top-three stage times with WRC’s frontrunners on Friday morning to launch themselves into third overall before Friday's remote service. An awesome drive over stage five, the 17.8-kilometre Mt Elikon test, proved enough for the Rally1 rookies to secure their maiden WRC stage win, consolidating their place on the podium.
Unfortunately, the brutal Greek conditions had other ideas. Two punctures followed by a mechanical issue ultimately resulted in retirement at the end of what had been Armstrong’s best day aboard the Ford Puma Rally1 to date.
M-Sport’s overnight repairs ensured Armstrong and Byrne completed the rally’s remaining stages - sampling what it is like to run first on the road in rocky conditions.
"The first day went quite well to begin with - we made the most of our road position and got up to third overall with our first stage win," reflected Armstrong. "But then we had a technical issue and a couple of punctures, so we had to retire for the day. We spent the rest of the weekend road-sweeping, which was good learning, if a bit difficult after being on such a high the day before”.
"There are still plenty of positives to take away though - the pace we showed from that road position was really encouraging. It was a tricky one, a case of what might have been, but that's how the Acropolis can be.”
County Tyrone co-driver Aaron Johnston and Takamoto Katsuta delivered a classy performance to claim third place on the Acropolis, edging them closer to WRC points leader Evans in the championship standings.
Meanwhile, James Fulton and Yuki Yamamoto topped the Power Stage at the end of the rally despite punctures limiting their WRC2 result to tenth overall in their Toyota Yaris Rally2.
On Italy's Rally International de Casentino, Casey Jay Coleman and Killian McArdle upped their pace through the eight-stage event to finish 15th overall and third in the Rally3 class ahead of the next round of ERC, Rally di Roma.
"It was a great event at Rally International de Casentino, perfect preparation for Rome next weekend," said Coleman. "We made some great steps forward with the feeling in the car, and it was really nice to be back on the demanding Italian tarmac again and acclimatise ourselves to the heat. Massive thanks to both my sponsors and the MI Rally Academy.”
Cian Caldwell and Paul McPhillips claimed a top-five Rally3 finish on the same Italian event in their Ford Fiesta, continuing their ERC3 preparations ahead of Rally di Roma.
“We had a good event, using the few days to get used to the Italian roads and heat in preparation for Rally di Roma next weekend. We tried out plenty of changes with the car, learned lots and straight into testing now for that. Exciting week ahead. Big thanks to all our sponsors and the MI Rally Academy for all the support” said Caldwell.
