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From tight and technical forestry lanes to the fast and flowing windfarm complexes, it’s fair to say that the season opening Killarney Forest Rally posed a true test of a huge field of excited competitors as they embarked upon their 2024 Motorsport Ireland Junior Rally Series (MIJRS) campaign with the loose-surface opener.
Contested over six stages located east of Castleisland, the event marked a huge point in the development of Irelands brightest rallying talent with many debuting new machinery, stepping up in class or even just tackling their very first Rally.
Ireland’s national Dual Surface junior series, the MIJRS is designed to be a pathway within the sport for those aiming to progress their careers in Rallying by introducing them to a varied set of events across both the Sligo Pallets Forest Rally Championship and the Triton National Rally Championship.
The rewards on offer through the series are remarkable, with €80,000 in funding and development offered by both the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy, through tuition and guidance through their driver development programs and the Billy Coleman Award, and Race & Rally who have offered prize funds for those competing in Stellantis Motorsport machines within the MIJRS.
This year’s opening round saw quite a bit of change amongst the MIJRS battles, the clearest being the all-new Class 2A making its debut. Introduced as a budget friendly option for competitors looking to purchase older R2 & R2T machines, the trio of registered competitors competing in Killarney were all graduates of the J1000 class.
Last year’s J1000 event winner Jack Kennedy and Ciara Duggan both enjoyed their first events behind the wheel of R2 spec Ford Fiestas, it would be Jack Harris in his R2T Fiesta that would take the class win and leave Killarney with maximum points. The experience gained having made the swap to the Class 2A car earlier than his rivals gave Harris a real advantage, but we would expect some great battling between the trio across 2024.
In the J1000 class, the rise and rise of this trailblazing formula to attract youngsters into the sport seems to show no signs of stopping its incredible growth. This year has seen a staggering 22 drivers register for the MIJRS, and it would be Danny Brady who left Castleisland on Sunday delighted to have claimed the first maximum score of the year with a thoroughly deserved victory.
Although he would only go fastest on the opening test, a controlled drive by the youngster in his newly built VW Up would see him cross the finish line with just 8.2 seconds to spare over Tommy Cronin, with Ryan Caldwell finishing in third ahead of Ross Ryan in fourth.
The rough nature of the stages led to issues for some of the hard charging drivers, with both Tommy Furlong and David Travers hampered by mechanical issues that saw them drop back, the latter left frustrated to have dropped out of the podium positions on what was a great drive with issues on the final stage.
It was the opening stage that unravelled Oisin McShane’s day, with an off-road excursion costing valuable time but remarkably he would go on to claim four consecutive fastest stage times in what was his very first event, but could not do enough to reel in Ger Hartigan-Dick who finished 7th which is amongst his best results to date in the series.
The MIJRS season opening Killarney Forest Rally will be long remembered by the many J1000 debutants including David Slattery, Morgan Moore, Adam Ronan, Gemma Hallinan, Frank Wharton,
Sean White, Gareth McGettrick, Rhys McElhinney, Darragh McEnroe, Daniel Ormond, Charlie Browne & Jack Cullinane, while Cameron Crozier & Conor Ryan will be aiming to use their experience to get back into the fight on the upcoming Imokilly Gravel Rallysprint, the next round of the J1000 series.
While J1000 has boomed in recent years, so too has the remarkable Class 2 (Rally4) taken off. The entry list for the Castleisland event was brimmed full of some of Ireland brightest future Rally Stars in the cutting edge FWD machinery capable of delivering incredible results, but it would be a remarkable opening stage performance by Kyle McBride that would ultimately see him claim the class win, as well as the Race & Rally Event Win, in his Peugeot 208 Rally4.
On a damp and slippy opening 12.6km stage, McBride would post a time 8.5 seconds quicker than any of his rivals, and this would extend to a mid-day advantage of 13.8 seconds over last year’s MIJRS runner up Dylan Eves with series newcomer Craig Rahill in a fine third. Although Eves would pull over 5 seconds back on Stage 5, it wouldn’t be enough as Kyle McBride would finish with 9.1 seconds to spare.
2023 J1000 winner Tommy Moffett impressed on his Rally4 debut in his Ford Fiesta finishing fourth, the smile and enjoyment clear to see exuding from the youngster all weekend, while local driver Mossie Costello set strong times as he continues his progression within the class. It would be a disappointing retirement for last year’s winner Cian Caldwell with his rally ending on the final stage, while Keelan Grogan had to retire due to illness.
The MIJRS season quickly switches to Tarmac now with the series heading to the Mayo Stages Rally on March 3rd, while our J1000 drivers have a few weeks off before they go to Imokilly Sprint on March 30th, before all the classes return for the Carrick-on-Suir Willie Loughman Forest Rally on April 14th. Make sure and check out www.MIJRS.ie for all the latest info.
