Tweet The Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy is targeting more top results on a tough gravel challenge when Rally Italia Sardegna hosts round six of the 2024 World Rally Championship this weekend. Similarly to round five, in Portugal, Rally Italia Sardegna is comprised of fast gravel stages that frequently alternate between wide and narrow roads. Set in front of a picturesque backdrop of the Mediterranean Sea, the idyllic setting does anything but reflect the nature of the rally. Deep ruts and extreme heat push both driver and machine to the limit, with the rough surface creating extre ..read more

Tweet The FIA Junior WRC will tackle gravel for the first time this season when Rally Italia Sardegna, round three of five, kicks off later this week. Based in the seaside city of Alghero, on the north-western coast of the Mediterranean island, Rally Italia Sardegna runs from 30 May – 2 June. It is the first of three consecutive loose-surface events on the FIA Junior WRC calendar. Scorching temperatures, rough and tough roads lined with trees and rocks, and a soft sandy surface that becomes extremely slippery when wet are all hallmarks of this rally. And with 17 crews comp ..read more

Tweet Two Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy members are set to go head-to-head in WRC2  machinery for the first time this year on Vodafone Rally de Portugal which gets underway on Thursday. William Creighton, the current Junior World Rally Champion, will start this third World Rally Championship event of year on board a M-Sport Ford Fiesta Rally2. He will be joined on the gravel event by Josh McErlean who will get his 2024 WRC campaign  underway as he will pilot a Topsport World Rally Team Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 with returning co-driver James Fulton alongside. The difficult gravel even ..read more

Tweet FIA Junior WRC is ready to hit the Tarmac as the series touches down in the capital city of Zagreb for Croatia Rally this week (18 – 21 April). With over 300,000 spectators lining the stages in 2022 and 2023, Croatia Rally forms round two of five and, importantly, is the only sealed-surface fixture on the 2024 FIA Junior WRC calendar. However, despite being labelled as a Tarmac event, Croatia presents a unique variety of surfaces ranging from smooth asphalt to badly broken concrete. Fluctuating grip levels on the undulating roads pose a challenge, a ..read more

Tweet It is with deep regret that Motorsport Ireland confirm that Ireland is no longer being considered to host a round of the FIA World Rally Championship in 2025. On Monday April 15th Motorsport Ireland finally received confirmation from Minister Byrne, Minister of State for Sport, Physical Education and the Gaeltacht, that his Department would need “at least six months” to undertake further independent economic assessments and analysis of our proposal. The closing date for the bidding process with WRC Promoter GmbH was the end of Q1 this year, a date that Motorsport Ireland made both Minist ..read more

Tweet Jon Armstrong was full of praise for his new co-driver Eoin Treacy after the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy crew finished an impressive eighth overall on their FIA European Rally Championship debut in Hungary over the weekend. Armstrong and Rally Academy co-driver Eoin Treacy finished day one in tenth place in their first full day in a Ford Fiesta Rally2. Throughout Saturday’s loop of six gravel stages Armstrong and Treacy continued to learn their M-Sport-supported Ford Fiesta car, they raised the suspension settings at the rally’s midday service in Veszprem and despite a mid-afternoon ..read more

Tweet Reigning FIA Junior World Rally Champion William Creighton will take a significant step in his motorsport career, by tackling the FIA World Rally Championship WRC2 series in 2024 behind the wheel of an M-Sport Ford Fiesta Rally2. Creighton, from Moira in Co. Armagh secured a four-round WRC2 programme and Pirelli tyre package thanks to winning the coveted FIA Junior World Rally Championship title in 2023. Thanks to the support of the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy, Creighton and co-driver Liam Regan will bolster their campaign to seven events, enabling the crew to compete for the WRC2 a ..read more

Tweet Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy driver Eamonn Kelly got his second season of the Junior World Rally Championship off to a perfect start by taking third place in Rally Sweden at the weekend. The result matched his Acropolis Rally Greece performance last September and sets him up nicely for round two in Croatia in April – an event he won in 2023. One of a record 19 entrants, Kelly found himself in a battle with eventual winner, local ace, Mille Johansson and FIA Rally Star program member Romet Jürgenson as the Donegal man completed the podium in the category for identical Ford Fiesta Rall ..read more

Tweet Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy driver Eamonn Kelly is amongst a record-breaking entry list for the 2024 Junior World Rally Championship. WRC officials confirmed that 19 crews will take to the start line on next month’s Rally Sweden, the opening round of the five-event series. It is the largest JWRC entry in two decades. Donegal man Kelly, the outgoing Motorsport Ireland Billy Coleman Award Young Driver of the Year returns to the J-WRC for the second time. Kelly graduated to the FIA Junior WRC in 2023 having claimed the Junior British Rally Championship title the previous season. A cons ..read more

Tweet Reigning FIA Junior World Rally Champion William Creighton will take a significant step in his motorsport career, by tackling the FIA World Rally Championship WRC2 series in 2024 behind the wheel of an M-Sport Ford Fiesta Rally2. Creighton, from Moira in Co. Armagh secured a four-round WRC2 programme and Pirelli tyre package thanks to winning the coveted FIA Junior World Rally Championship title in 2023. Thanks to the support of the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy, Creighton and co-driver Liam Regan will bolster their campaign to seven events, enabling the crew to compete for the WRC2 a ..read more