Josh McErlean and Eoin Treacy top Ireland’s World Rally Championship contenders on Rally Sweden after their encouraging Rally1 debut in Monte-Carlo.
The M-Sport Ford crew will start sixth on the road in Sweden’s 18-stage snow spectacular. WRC’s iconic winter rally is once again based in Umea, situated along Sweden’s east coast, with permanent sub-zero temperatures ensuring perfect snow-rally conditions.
McErlean has only competed on Sweden’s famous snow-covered stages once before but the 25-year-old can take confidence from his Rally Monte-Carlo performance after jumping into WRC’s deep end.
The Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy duo developed their pace stage-by-stage on WRC’s curtain raiser to seal a seventh-place finish in challenging alpine conditions.
“Rally Sweden in a Rally1 car will be like nothing else I’ve ever experienced before,” McErlean commented, “but that’s going to be a theme of the season.”
“It is such a specialist event that takes years to master so, pretty much like Monte, our expectations remain realistic and that is quite simply to do our best for the M-Sport team and try to gain some points for our season.
“The plan was always to take the first few rounds step by step as they are so specialist, and that approach clearly worked in Monte Carlo; we learned so much on that event.
“Rally Sweden is a special event with the unique challenge of the surface. The grip these cars can generate with the studded tyres is something else.”
Eoin Treacy // Co-driver
Pre-event testing has given McErlean a taste of steering M-Sport’s powerful Rally1 Puma between the Swedish snowbanks. Now, he will take on the rally’s high-speed stages starting with shakedown on Thursday morning before the Umea Sprint opener later that evening.
Eoin Treacy // John Coyne // Josh Mc Erlean
Meanwhile, Junior WRC sparks into action with Rally Sweden marking its opening round of 2025. The MI Rally Academy is represented in the series for the fifth year running as Eamonn Kelly and Conor Mohan embark on their third Junior WRC campaign.
The Donegal-Monaghan partnership shone on the snow-surface stages to claim a Junior WRC podium 12 months ago. With 12 Junior WRC crews vying for its prize package of four fully-funded WRC2 drives, Kelly faces stiff competition to build on last year’s Swedish success.
Conor Mohan // Eamonn Kelly
The 26-year-old has honed his ice-driving skills over the past month by competing on Finland’s Kuopio and Arctic Lapland rallies. Kelly built his pace in Kuopio to secure the fastest Rally3 time on its final stage but was limited to three stages on the Arctic Lapland Rally after his Ford Fiesta Rally3 encountered a technical issue.
Motorsport Ireland’s presence in Sweden will be boosted by co-drivers Aaron Johnston and James Fulton.
The Toyota Yaris Rally1 of Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston will start one car behind McErlean and Treacy on Rally Sweden’s opening stage.
Johnston’s Rally Monte-Carlo featured a stage win on its penultimate day as Katsuta punched in top times in the slippery conditions. Unfortunately, they were forced to retire from sixth position after sliding into a ditch on Sunday morning’s pre-dawn test.
James Fulton ensures there are Irish competitors to follow in each WRC category as he partners Toyota Yaris Rally2 driver Yuki Yamamoto in Sweden. It will be the WRC2 crew’s second event together after setting competitive times on Rally Monte-Carlo.
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