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The start of a new season is always exciting. There are new crews itching to go, new cars ready to be learned and a host of off-season learning and preparation set to be put on the line in the hunt for glory. There’s a buzz in the air, a heady mix of nerves and tension being balanced with focus and determination. Heading to the first stage of the 2024 Motorsport Ireland Junior Rally Series (MIJRS), I’m sure all of these emotions and more were pulsing through these future Rally stars.
Ireland’s sole national Junior Mix-Surface championship, the MIJRS is quickly becoming a vital step in the development of a host of upcoming and exciting Irish rallying talent, and looking at the bumper entry for the season opening Killarney Forest Rally, its clear to see the huge buzz around developing young talent at present in Irish Rallying.
Split across rounds of the Sligo Pallets Forest Rally Championship and the Triton National Rally Championship, with bonus Rallysprint rounds for the J1000 crews, the series is designed to give youngsters a balanced learning opportunity across both surfaces early in their career, setting them up for success into the future. Coupled to this is a massive prize fund on offer.
Split across four classes, competitors in this years MIJRS are competing for just under €70,000 in funding and support from the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy, with an additional €12,000 Prize fund announced yesterday with the support of Race & Rally which is open to competitors in certain cars.
For 2024, the MIJRS will incorporate four classes, all of which are set to be incredibly exciting affairs. The largest field of entrants by far is in the J1000 ranks, with Ross Ryan heading into the first of six stages on Sunday seeded first in Class 21, but he will have his work cut out holding off some incredibly experienced competitors heading into their third year at this level such as Tommy Cronin, Tommy Furlong and Danny Brady.
Others return for a second season such as David Travers, Ryan Caldwell, Rhys McElhinney and Ger Hartigan-Dick will have aspirations to make a push for the podium places, while newcomers such as Gemma Hallinan, Adam Ronan, Gareth McGettrick and Jack Cullinane will be relishing the opportunity to gain mileage and experience heading into an eight round MIJRS series.
Class 16 & Rally5 combine in 2025, but J1000 graduate Kallum Graffin is the sole entrant in the class in Killarney, while the newly formed Class 2A for R2 &R2T cars is also full of a trio of ex-J1000 stars as Jack Harris, Jack Kennedy and Ciara Duggan are all set to debut their newly acquired Ford Fiesta’s in the MI Junior Rally Series.
Standings are calculated by getting a maximum score consisting of each competitor’s best performance in 6 out of 8 events across the year, these being the 3 best Gravel results and 3 best Tar results. The Driver must be under 23 years of age on the 1st of January in the year of the award for Class 16/Rally5 or under 24 for Classes 2 & 2A.
Class 2 has emerged as the pinnacle class in recent years, and it looks set to be a phenomenal battle in store with the registered crews absolutely chock full of the finest talent emerging in Irish Rallying. 2023 Billy Coleman Winner Jack Brennan tasted MIJRS success in J1000 and Rally5 in the past two years, and he leads a bumper crop of Rally4 machines away from the Castleisland start line, but he will need to deal with 2023 Champion Cian Caldwell in a similar Peugeot 208 Rally4.
In similar machinery are Kyle McBride, Keelan Grogan and 2023 J1000 champion Tommy Moffett, while a host of rivals also line up in Ford Fiesta Rally4’s such as Craig Rahill, Dan Nash, Dylan Eves and local Kerry star Mossie Costello.
The 2024 MIJRS season begins with the Killarney Forestry Rally on February 18th, while we switch to Tarmac soon after with the Mayo Stages Rally on March 3rd. Full championship information and registration details can be found at www.MIJRS.ie