Irish drivers to compete in new Fiesta Rally3 Evo for first time in Sardinia

Irish drivers to compete in new Fiesta Rally3 Evo in Sardinia

The 2023 FIA Junior WRC Championship takes to the rough and tough roads of Rally d’Italia Sardegna for round three, marking the first gravel rally of the 2023 tour.
 
M-Sport Poland’s Fiesta Rally3 Evo will make its WRC debut in Sardinia, with every Junior WRC crew taking delivery of a brand-new Fiesta Rally3 Evo on this event. The Fiesta Rally3 has received a comprehensive update package including a new-look front bumper which provides a larger aperture for cooling, a new rear wing and new gravel damper specifications.
 
Sardinia has a long and storied past with Junior WRC, making its first appearance on the feeder series’ calendar in 2005 with Dani Sordo taking his maiden Junior WRC victory.
 
Junior WRC is returning to the rough gravel classic for the event’s 20^th edition and what promises to be an action-packed weekend filled with drama.
 
Sardinia usually sees high ambient temperatures which make for oven-like temperatures for each crew to contend with inside the car. Heat exhaustion will be a developing adversary for them as each stage progresses making it difficult to stay focussed. This is a rally where focus is paramount too with dust and visibility being major factors for drivers to negotiate on each speed test. This challenge culminates on the 50km Monte Lerno stage this year which crews will have to make two passes of, totalling almost one third of the entire length of the rally!
 
The challenge of Rally Italia is further compounded by a continually developing surface as the soft and sandy top surface covers a very hard and immovable bedrock. It results in an unstable surface that is ravaged by more the more powerful cars ahead that dig up ruts and rocks. 

66 William Creighton / Liam Regan
“It’s going to be a difficult weekend. A big challenge. The stages are going to be rough by the time we get there and it’s going to be warm. So it’s hard to know what to do. I think we’re going to have to play it smart when we can and try to stay out of trouble. But that’s easier said than done. So yeah, let’s just try and have a good recce and see how it goes.”
 

 72 Eamonn Kelly / Conor Mohan
“I was able to do a pre-event test in a rally2 car, to be honest, it was just an opportunity that was presented to me, and I was very grateful to get it. We grabbed it both hands. And It’s a rough rally and it’s as good as it gets ahead of Sardinia. We’ve done nothing in the Fiesta Rally3 on gravel, but you know, we’ve done some driving and that’s the main thing. Obviously, it is going to take a little bit of time to adapt to the Rally3, but we’ve got a very long rally ahead of us to do that.”