Motorsport: McErlean and Treacy take seventh in Central European Rally

The Irish crew of Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy (Ford Puma Rally1) were seventh in the Central European Rally. Picture: Courtesy of M-Sport Ford WRT.

The Irish crew of Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy took their M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 to seventh place in the Central European Rally.  They have now racked up three seventh place finishes in their WRC Rally1 season, gaining huge experience.

Toyota GR Yaris wrapped up the Manufacturers' crown for a fifth successive season, with the driver's title looking set to be a three-way battle between Toyota drivers Elfyn Evans, Sebastien Ogier and Kalle Rovanpera. 

Pre-event series leader Sebastien Ogier slid off in slippy conditions during Saturday's leg and Rovanpera, who had moved in front after the morning opener, went on to control proceedings. He finished 43.7s ahead of team mate Elfyn Evans, who regained the championship lead and edged out Ott Tanak (now 50 points off top spot in the championship) for second place on the final stage. Ogier took maximum points for the Power Stage and the Sunday stages to stay in the title hunt with two rounds remaining. 

A delighted Rovanpera, who will leave the WRC after this season to concentrate on circuit racing, said, “It's been great to be back on Tarmac again, and I think the pace Séb (Ogier) and I had was pretty fast compared to the others. Huge congratulations to everyone in the workshop - clearly, we are super good as a team. I'm hungry for the title now; we increased our chances, it still will not be easy, but we'll try to continue.” 

For Ogier, Saturday's incident was untypical. Apparently, his Toyota had picked up a puncture that didn't show in the cockpit sensors of his Toyota that understeered into a tree and damaged the front left of his car. 

Japan's Takamoto Katsuta and his Northern Ireland co-driver Aaron Johnson took two stage wins secure fourth. A small impact with a bale on Saturday and an excursion into a field were McErlean's only misdemeanours and with team mate Gregoire Munster running under Super Rally, McErlean led home the M-Sport outfit. 

"The weekend was all about building experience and learning more about the car on asphalt. Tarmac in a Rally1 car is one of the hardest surfaces to master, trusting the aero, the brakes, and the grip levels like the front-runners, takes time and confidence. Each stage, we’re getting closer, understanding more about how to extract that pace. We achieved our goal of improving across the weekend and closing the gap to the leaders, which is really encouraging heading into Japan.” 

Meanwhile, a plot and bash section south of Nad decided the outcome of the Cork Startrek Navigation Trial that was won by Dromahane's Patrick Murphy and Mallow's Aaron O'Regan (Subaru Impreza). The Donoughmore based event was the first round of the Motorsport Ireland National Navigation and Munster Navigation Championships.