The latest season of World Rally Championship action gets underway this week on its showcase opener, Rally Monte-Carlo.
There is extra Irish interest in WRC this year as Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy duo Josh McErlean and Eoin Treacy make their Rally1 debut aboard M-Sport’s Ford Puma.
McErlean’s Puma will wear the number 55 throughout its 14 WRC events in 2025. Rally Monte-Carlo marks the Kilrea pilot’s 55th event since winning the Junior British Rally Championship, the Billy Coleman Award, and joining the MI Rally Academy. Seeded 10th for his second visit to the south of France’s famous asphalt roads, McErlean is aiming for a smooth run on WRC’s four-day opener.
“This is just the beginning for us and the start of a long season,” explained McErlean. “So, we are approaching this step by step and aim to find our feet as quickly as possible.
“That’s not an easy task, but we are determined to do everything we can to have a clean, enjoyable rally and do our very best for the M-Sport team.”
A day-and-a-half test in France allowed the Irish pairing to sample Rally1 power on a mix of snow, ice, and dry asphalt stages. Shakedown on Wednesday will give McErlean another chance to gauge his new surroundings before heading to Monaco to soak up the atmosphere on the rally’s famous Casino Square start on Thursday evening.
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McErlean and Treacy are joined by a further four Motorsport Ireland competitors on the icy foothills of the Alps.
Aaron Johnston will join McErlean and Treacy in Monte-Carlo’s Rally1 field as he starts his fourth full year co-driving for Japan’s Takamoto Katsuta. The Toyota Yaris Rally1 crew will hope to build on their four top five finishes in 2024, including a runner-up result on the gruelling Safari Rally. Katsuta and Johnston finished seventh on last year’s edition of “The Monte” and line up as part of a five-car entry of Rally1 Toyotas.
Eamonn Boland and MJ Morrissey return for another year of World Rally Championship escapades. Morrissey claimed the WRC Masters Cup co-drivers’ title after an impressive campaign in 2024. The Ford Fiesta crew will start 10th out of 32 Rally2 cars on Boland’s 20th Rally Monte-Carlo.
James Fulton will start Rally Monte-Carlo one car behind his Rally2 compatriots as the Cavan co-driver makes his debut with Japan’s Yuki Yamamoto. Yamamoto is part of Toyota’s WRC Challenge Program with Monte-Carlo marking the start of his second year in WRC2.
The first of 18 Rally Monte-Carlo stages takes place on Thursday evening with action extending across four days until Sunday afternoon’s Power Stage.
One other MI Rally Academy crew has already got its season underway. Junior WRC contenders Eamonn Kelly and Conor Mohan completed a successful attack on Finland’s Kuopio Rally last weekend.
A stage win on the snow-based rally’s final test ensured the Ford Fiesta Rally3 crew came home with a top-ten finish overall and fourth in the jam-packed Rally3 class. 14 Rally3 cars started the eight-stage event based north-east of Jyvaskyla with Kelly upping his pace through the day as he gained vital experience on the high-speed snow stages.
Kelly will continue his Rally Sweden preparations at the end of January on the Arctic Rally. His fourth-place result, 1.1 seconds off a podium position, and 13.9 seconds behind the Rally3 winner, was mission complete as his damage-free car will be in perfect condition to further develop his snow rally skills inside the Arctic Circle. The Donegal driver knew it was crucial to complete all the stages on Saturday’s event and was delighted with how he controlled his pace through the day, finally setting the Rally3 benchmark on Kuopio’s final stage.
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