Irish crews rev up for Secto Rally Finland

This weekend’s Secto Rally Finland marks the high point of the World Rally Championship. Ranked as the fastest rally on the planet, Finland’s world championship counter has been part of the WRC since the championship began in 1973 and continues to provide one of the sport’s most spectacular rollercoaster rides.

Counting as round nine of the 2024 season, Rally Finland completes a trio of high-speed gravel events to follow on from Poland and Latvia. Simply put, it is the one rally on the WRC roster that every driver wants to do and do well on. Six athletes representing the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy will compete in the iconic Jyväskylä-based rally this year. Reigning Junior World Rally Champion William Creighton recorded the best WRC2 result of his career at Tet Rally Lavia two weeks ago by taking fifth place in the fiercely contested WRC2 category. This is the form that he and co-driver Liam Regan will bring to Finland as they prepare for their second high-speed gravel rally in Rally2 machinery in t their M-Sport Ford Fiesta Rally2.

“Latvia was an enjoyable weekend and the sensation of driving the Fiesta Rally2 across those stages was pretty special. We settled in quickly which is a testament to all the hard work we have been putting in behind the scenes and working with the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy to cope with the high speeds of Latvia. That will also carry forward to Finland,” he said. “We now head into another busy period as we continue our WRC2 season in Finland this weekend and then we pick up our British Rally Championship campaign with the Grampian in Scotland next week, but the confidence levels are high and that’s important on the type of rallies we have coming up.”

As Finland did not feature in the Junior World Rally Championship in recent years – 2024 marks the event’s first inclusion in the junior series since 2019 – Creighton and Regan have no previous experience of the fast lightning-fast roads and stomach-churning jumps that are a hallmark of the event to call upon. Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy colleagues Josh McErlean and James Fulton have previous Rally Finland experience as this will be their third attempt at the rally. With 61 per cent of the timed route for 2024 being different compared to 2023this is essentially a new rally for the Skoda Motorsport Toksport WRT crew too. They are “managing expectations” ahead of the “pinnacle” event of the season.

“Finland is an event that you could say is the pinnacle of world rallying. To have the opportunity to go here in one of the best Rally2 cars is phenomenal,” said McErlean. “We have to manage our expectations going into this one, show good pace but most importantly consistency throughout the whole event. I can’t wait for this week to get started. It’s the Christmas week of world rallying.”

Eamonn Kelly and Conor Mohan also have Rally Finland experience. They are contesting the 2024 Junor World Rally Championship in an M-Sport Poland-prepared Ford Fiesta Rally3. Last year the Donegal/Monaghan crew made their Finland debit at the wheel of a Hyundai i20 Rally2 as part of their prize for winning the previous season’s Junior British Rally Championship. But you can never have enough Finland experience and with that in mind, they entered last Saturday’s HYAccenter Ralli in Tampere to get some high-speed testing ahead of the main event this week. It was a positive decision as they took a dramatic Rally3 class win on the final stage over local hotshot Toni Herranen. Diego Domínguez Jr was third, the Paraguayan won the Junior World Rally Championship class on the recent Rally Italia Sardegna and Vodafone Rally de Portugal rounds.

“Preparations are going well,” said Kelly. “The rally was a good positive test in the car and we’re definitely close to where we want to be with the setup. Doing the [HYAcenter Ralli] rally allowed us to see how the setup is across the variation of different stages. It is a great way of preparing and leaving us sharp. Recce in Finland is notorious for being difficult when you come for the first time due to the nature of the roads. The roads are highly technical and fast, as well as being extremely wide but we have plenty of prep done on the notes from last year. It is the biggest rally in the calendar and we got to experience that last year. It is such a great event and probably the event I’ve been looking forward to the most just from a pure enjoyment side of things.”