MIJRS Crews Excel in the West

Class 2A leader Jack Kennedy amongst MIJRS crews on Mayo Forest Rally. Photo by Cian Donnellan

It was a case of ‘Into the West’ last weekend for our full field of Motorsport Ireland Junior Rally Series (MIJRS) competitors, and for Cian Caldwell, Ross Ryan & James McShea it truly was a spirited adventure as they took victories in their respective classes, and head off into the summer break with a well-earned haul of precious MIJRS points

Contested across dual surfaces, including the gravel tracks of the Sligo Pallets Forest Rally Championship and the tarmac lanes of the Triton Showers National Rally Championship, the MIJRS is Ireland’s premier series for developing future talent in the sport, and the 2025 crop of registered drivers is testament to the opportunities on offer.

With the support of the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy, the winners of Class 2 and 2A will each bag prize funding to the value of €10,000 towards their development as well as a coveted nomination for the Billy Coleman Award shortlist, a life changing prize claimed in 2024 by MIJRS winner Craig Rahill.

Last weekends Mayo Forest Rally, based in Ballina, was real step into the unknown for all the crews as the event had not run for just under a decade, but the short compact loop was universally praised by competitors.

Class 2

Will anyone stop the rise of Cian Caldwell in 2025? Four events down and three wins under his belt, its fair to say this season has seen an incredible return to form from our 2023 MIJRS champion as he has found a real turn of pace in his Peugeot 208 Rally4 that the rest of the field are struggling to match, although it was a tight battle all day as Jack Harris, the 2024 Class 2A Champion, kept the pressure on throughout.

With the stages being short but requiring full commitment, just 5.2 seconds would ultimately separate Caldwell from the chasing Harris in a Ford Fiesta Rally4, while Oran England set some really strong times to finish third in what was still just his third rally on Gravel in a similar Ford.

After the disappointment of crashing out in Tipperary a few weeks ago, Ben McFall gradually eased himself back onto the pace many know he possesses, and he would finish just a handful of seconds off England in fourth, and just ahead of Jack Byrne who continues a remarkable debut rally season that sees him sit third in the MIJRS standings at the halfway point.

For Tommy Moffett & Robert Cronin it was a frustrating and ultimately fruitless day in Mayo as the pair both failed to finish, mechanical issues plaguing them throughout the day forcing them both to retire on the penultimate stage.

Class 2A

It was Ross Ryan who left Ballina on Saturday the happiest of the Class 2A crews as he bagged a second successive maximum score on gravel, and with it now sits just a single point off the lead of the standings going into the summer break. The youngster, making the step up from J1000 this season, impressed once more as he went fastest on all bar one of the six stages and had 26 seconds of an advantage at the finish.

Taking second place was Tommy Furlong, a fellow J1000 graduate this year who is really impressing having stepped up to a Ford Fiesta R2 and has performed well on his more familiar surface – gravel. Furlong had strong competition all day from Class 2A leader Jack Kennedy, with just 5.2 seconds separating the pair at the finish.

Daragh Kelly, the sole non-Ford entrant in Class 2A with his Peugeot 208 R2, was very impressive on the fast Mayo stages, and a fastest stage time on the Shanettra stage and a finish just half a second off the podium was great reward for the very clear improvement seen event-by-event in recent times.

J1000

In J1000, it was drama right to the very again once again, as it always seems to be, with the result in Mayo changing in the final few miles. Once more this year it was heartbreak for Danny Brady as his 7.7 second advantage going into the final stage evaporated when a driveshaft broke on his VW Up!

For a second event in succession, it was James McShea that sat atop the podium as the crews returned to Ballina, he finished the day with five seconds to spare from the very impressive local star Adam Ronan, while MIJRS leader Kyle Drury made it a clean sweep of four podium finishes on Gravel Rallies to date this year in third.

Summer Break

The MIJRS crews, many doing exams for which we pass on our best of luck with, now take a bit of a break for the summer before action kicks off once more for the Class 2 & 2A crews on July 6th with the Ravens Rock Rally, while for J1000 their next day out is July 19th when they head to Waterford Airport and the Carrick Tarmac Sprint.