Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy members Creighton and McErlean battle it out in Portugal

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 event will mark a new era in McErlean’s career, as he starts his third season in the World Rally Championship, but his first behind the wheel of a Škoda and his first in a new team. The event marks Creighton’s third event of year and while both drivers have gone head-to-head in past – most notably in the 2023 Rallye Monte Carlo when they both drove PCRS Rallysport-prepared Hyundai i20 Rally2 cars, this will be the first time they will race each other on opposing teams. The two drivers are backed by the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy and the fact that both are driving for two of the most respected teams in the WRC service park shows what opportunities are available to young Irish talent under the academy’s development programme.

“I am super excited to start our WRC season and I feel comfortable in the relationship with Toksport and Škoda Motorsport which has started really well. It’s all so professionally run and a very positive environment,” said McErlean who will be navigated by James Fulton, another graduate of the programme. “It’s now full speed ahead into WRC Portugal and it’s great to have James back by my side. We know Portugal can turn into a game of survival at times, so we have to use our heads as always and manage any situations presented to us. But it feels like a long time coming and I can’t wait to get stuck into the thick of it at the  weekend.”

 Creighton is dovetailing his WRC2 programme with an assault on the British Rally Championship. He said: “This is my first WRC event on gravel in the Rally2 car, we did the Severn Valley [British Rally Championship round] a couple of weeks ago which was  fantastic. I have done Portugal twice before; it is an event I always look forward to. The weather looks good for the rally week so it is going to be warm which is  another factor to consider inside the car. I am looking forward to another rally with M Sport and  continuing to build on our WRC 2 campaign. We have good speed on tarmac so  we just need to work on trying to translate that speed on to  the gravel.”

 Vodafone Rally de Portugal offers over 337 kilometres of special stages, spread across four days. Thursday [9 May] houses the opening super special stage, before Friday’seight tests, separated by just one tyre fitting zone. Saturday is the longest of the rally at 145 kilometres, before Sunday’s four tests, including the world-famous Fafe stage, to round out the weekend.