TET Rally Latvia
It was a character-building weekend for Josh McErlean and James Fulton at TET Rally Latvia.
For the fourth rally this season the TOK Sport WRT crew were fighting for a WRC2 podium position on a round of the World Rally Championship.
After Thursday night’s opening super special stage in the capital city Riga, Friday would be the longest day of the event with seven stages and 120.92 competitive kilometres that took crews northwest of the host city Liepāja. There would be no opportunity for service until crews returned to Liepāja at the end of the day, only tyre-fitting zones before the morning and afternoon loops.
The Motorsport Ireland duo were instantly into the thick of the battle, fourth after Thursday’s opening spectator special, they hovered between second and fourth until disaster struck on Friday afternoon.
While holding third place, an off-road excursion cost over a minute and that ended their challenge for the day.
“Three-quarters of the way through there was a medium-speed corner, we missed our braking point and ended up on our side. The people pushed us back on. It’s a real shame because we were in the fight but we’ve dropped out of contention now,” said the Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 driver.
After the longest day of the event on Friday, Saturday would feature eight stages, with an initial loop of 72.07 kilometres followed by service in Liepāja and another loop of 31.93 km. With only one stage to be repeated in identical form, drivers would face a mix of first and second-pass conditions throughout the day.
A recovery drive on Saturday ended with a stage 11 puncture and McErlean and Fulton then adopted test mode to prepare for Rally Finland next month.
A further mechanical issue later that day put paid to any hope of a strong finish.
“After the puncture earlier [on Saturday] morning, we sadly encountered a boost pipe issue which we were forced to carry for the afternoon. We had no choice but to just try and survive and get through the day,” he explained on Saturday night. “It was obviously unfortunate the way it happened. It is good we’re still in the race. Tyre wear was quite high and we lost one early on, but we still have the rhythm. The pace is still there.”
William Creighton and Liam Regan recorded a career-best WRC2 result to date in their M-Sport Ford Fiesta Rally2.
The reigning Junior World Rally champions were determined to make the finish of the rally without using SuperRally rules, after a string of issues hampered progress over the early part of the season.
A fourth-place finish in the WRC2 Challenger Category for non-factory drivers was a just reward for their measured approach to the weekend.
“It’s been a really positive weekend. First time driving on these kind of roads and co-driver Liam has done a good job, massive thanks to M-Sport and the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy as well,” said Creighton at the finish.
Both Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy crews will now turn their attention to Rally Finland from August 1 to 4.
TYRONE STAGES
Billy Coleman Award winner Jack Brennan continued his programme of non-championship rallies over the weekend.
The Peugeot 208 Rally4 driver endured a series of confidence-sapping incidents over the early part of the season and has elected to contest a series of smaller rallies to reverse that.
He contested Saturday’s Tyrone Stages at Benone and finished a deserved second in the Rally4 class.
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