Puncture and brake issues thwart Kelly’s ambitions of Junior WRC podium spot in Finland
Photos by Conor O’Neill, Sean Hassett, and Red Bull Content Pool
A puncture on stage 15 of Rally Finland has dropped the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy crew of Eamonn Kelly and Conor Mohan out of podium contention.
The Irish crew had worked their way up the second in the Junior WRC class on Saturday afternoon.
Ahead of stage 15, the 20.19 km Päijälä 2 test, they were just 8.5 seconds shy of class leader Petr Borodin.
The Irish crew consistently set top three JWRC times all day Saturday.
They started Saturday’s loop of six stages in third place – 9.7 seconds behind second-placed Gerardo Rosselot and 33.2 seconds behind leader Petr Borodin.
By the day’s midday service halt they had worked their way up to second place in the Junior category.
But the puncture cost them nearly three minutes and dropped them from second to seventh in the class standings.
In a cruel twist of fate, Borodin also hit trouble on the same test which resulted in Australian Gill Taylor taking the class lead – he was in third place ahead of stage 15.
As a show of what might have been – and despite brake issues – Kelly set third-fastest time on a very wet Ouninpohja 2 to end the day in sixth place in the class.
Based out of the central City of Jyväskylä, Rally Finland is the fastest event on the calendar and a jewel in the WRC’s crown.
Smooth gravel roads with heart-stopping jumps and blind corners winding through forests and around lakes demand bravery and pinpoint accuracy in the delivery of pace notes.
Saturday was the longest day of the rally with six stages covering a huge 144.22km.
Two loops of Västilä (SS11/14, 18.94km), Päijälä (SS12/15, 20.19km) and of course the legendary Ouninpohja (SS13/16, 32.98km) completed day two.
The Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy crew also endured a challenging Friday.
Cancelled stages did not help their cause and the one uninterrupted stage they contested was hit by a very heavy rain shower that their rivals managed to avoid.
A string of top three times throughout the second loop of put them right back in contention.
A slow puncture on stage six deprived them of at least one fastest time in the class but they ended the opening full day of action in third place.
Ahead of Sunday’s final loop of four stages Kelly and Mohan are in sixth position and over two minutes off the class lead.
WRC 2 CHALLENGER
Fellow Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy members Josh McErlean and James Fulton moved from sixth to fifth in the WRC2 Challenger category in their Skoda Fabia Raly2 on Saturday.
Their performance has been awe-inspiring given that all four drivers in front of them are from either Finnish (Lauri Joona in first [Škoda Fabia RS Rally2]; [Mikko Heikkilä in second [Toyota GR Yaris Rally2]; Roope Korhonen in fourth [Toyota GR Yaris Rally2]) or Estonian (Georg Linnamäe in third [Toyota GR Yaris Rally2]) and are more at home on the high-speed Finnish roads.
The Irish crew are an impressive 15th overall too.
“That’s another day in Finland in the books,” said McErlean.
“With weather changing every minute it’s been tricky to compare with the front runners but are in a good place.”
“It has been positive today and major bucket list item has been ticked off the list -Ouninpohja.”
Only one other non-Finnish or Estonian driver holds a position in the top ten in the WRC2 Challenger class.
Czech driver Martin Prokop is in ninth place.
William Creighton and Liam Regan were forced to retire their M-Sport Ford Fiesta Rally2 on Friday after picking up damage in ruts on stage six but returned to action on Saturday.
They endured torrential rain and had to stop and change a puncture during a challenging second full day of action.
“It’s been a tricky afternoon out there with a puncture and then the onslaught of torrential rain right in the middle of Ouninpohja,” said Creighton.
“As if that stage wasn’t mad enough…it’s a crazy ride in the dry…never mind the wet! But we have gained some great experience of the stages today – this is some place!”
They ended day two in 17th place in WRC2 Challenger category but their focus will now switch to next Saturday’s Grampian Rally, the fourth round of the British Rally Championship, in an effort to extend their overall lead in that series.
Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston were running in fourth place overall until SS5 when an impact with a tree damaged the right-rear corner of his car.
They were able to complete the stage and tried to reach mid-day service but unfortunately had to retire from the day on the road section. The team could later repair the damage and they returned on Saturday under SuperRally rules.
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