Fast Finland rally presents opportunity for Irish crews

The Irish crew of Josh McErlean/ Eoin Treacy (M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1) will be aiming to improve on last year's seventh place in Rally Finland. Picture: Jaanus Ree / Red Bull Content Pool.

This weekend's Rally Finland, the fastest event on the World Rally Championship calendar, will reward bravery, confidence and total commitment over its flowing gravel roads that are noted for huge jumps and tight bends. It's a quick two-week turnaround for all concerned as the Rally1 era winds its way to an end with just four more rounds after this high speed journey through the Finnish forests.

For the Irish World Rally crews of Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy and Jon Armstrong/Shane Byrne it's another opportunity to improve on their respective season's best sixth and eighth place finishes. While there's been positives and disappointments along the way, rallying is still very much a results game. Their collective aim must be to break the Toyota/Hyundai monopoly.

It's ten years since Armstrong competed Finland then in a Ford Fiesta R2T, team mate McErlean can draw on his seventh place finish last year and both will benefit from the momentum of their high-speed exploits in Estonia two weeks ago.

McErlean gave his endorsement, "Finland is always one of the highlights of the season and one of my favourite rallies on the calendar. Driving these incredible Rally1 cars over the famous Finnish roads is something every driver dreams of. We’re looking to build on the positives from Estonia and continue making progress throughout the weekend.” 

Ready for the challenge, McErlean said, "I’m looking forward to the ultimate rally experience with the final year of Rally1 cars. I’ve only done Finland once before (2016) so it will certainly be a tough challenge to be on the limit from the word go. But we will certainly give it our best and build on our positive pace from Estonia.” 

Cavan's Craig Rahill (Ford Fiesta Rally3) competes in the Junior WRC category.

Now entering the "business end" of the championship, Welsh ace Elfyn Evans heads an impressive Toyota quintet that includes Takamoto Katsuta, Sami Pajari, Sebastien Ogier and Oliver Solberg, who is fifth and 47 points off top spot. With a maximum of 35 points available from every round, it's far from over. Ogier is a double winner in Finland and on this occasion will be re-united with his former title-winning co-driver Julien Ingrassia, who fills in for regular Vincent Landais, who misses the rally due to personal reasons. Hyundai will be looking to build on Adrien Fourmaux's third place in Estonia and Neuville's second in Greece as home hero Esapekka Lappi seeks a strong performance.

Meanwhile, on the home front, the rescheduled Monaghan Rally takes place on Sunday and counts as the fifth round of the Triton National Rally Championship where local hero Josh Moffett (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) heads the standings (on 70 points) entering the second half of the eight round series. As he chases a fifth national championship success - family honour is also at stake over the day's nine stages. He has won four of the last eight rallies in Monaghan, his older brother Sam, who won his first in 2023, has three wins. Josh makes no secret of his desire to beat his older brother at any rally, but particularly in Monaghan. Indeed, such is his competitive nature, he could even risk his national bid in the quest for family superiority.

In terms of the Triton series, he's seven points ahead of Longford's Shane Quinn (Ford Fiesta Rally2) and with three of the top six championship contenders absent in Monaghan, Quinn, who is showing a fine turn of speed, appears to be his principal rival at this time.

Opening round winner Donegal's David Kelly (Skoda Fabia RS) returns to the series with another Donegal driver Kevin Eves, also in a Skoda and with 34 championship points, the closest to Josh Moffett and Quinn on the championship leaderboard.

In the absence of several championship drivers Ballylickey's Daniel Cronin (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) has an ideal opportunity to increase his current twenty-two points tally. An outing in last week's Tour of Epynt should stand him in good stead although a fuel pump issue led to his exclusion due to exceeding maximum lateness. The Monaghan top ten also features Ryan Loughran (Ford Fiesta Rally2), Aidan Wray (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2), Joe Kelly (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) and John Warren (Ford Fiesta Rally2). The first stage is scheduled to start at 10.08am.

Saturday:

Secto Rally Finland (Round 10, World Rally Championship) Jvaskyla 8.01am.

Sunday:

Secto Rally Finland (Round 10, World Rally Championship) Jvaskyla 10.35am; Monaghan Rally (Round 5, Triton Showers National Rally Championship) Monaghan 8.30am.