Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy Drivers aiming to finish Season with a Flourish
Callum Devine is aiming to finish his FIA European Rally Championship (ERC) campaign with a flourish on the final round of the series this weekend, Rally Islas Canarias.
After securing top 11 finishes on round four of the 2020 FIA European Rally Championship (ERC) on Rally Hungary, Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy Drivers, Callum Devine and Josh McErlean are aiming to finish their FIA ERC campaigns with a flourish on the final round of the series this weekend, Rally Islas Canarias.
Devine, in Car 11 with co-driver James Fulton, is the reigning Motorsport Ireland International Driver of the Year while McErlean, in Car 17 with Keaton Williams, is the reigning Motorsport Ireland Young Rally Driver of the Year.
Both drivers are among the largest representation of Irish competitors taking part in an FIA Rally for some time. They are joined by Craig Breen and Paul Nagle driving for Team MRF Tyres (Car 5); Aaron Johnston co-driving for Oliver Solberg (Car 2); Pauric Duffy and Jeff Case (Car 28); Cathan McCourt and Barry McNulty (Car 49); Liam McIntyre co-driving for Gareth Sayers (Car 54), Jason Mitchell co-driving for Peter Ward (Car 51), and Marty McCormack and Barney Mitchell (Car 87, National category).
The event was originally meant to be the penultimate rally of the season but with the Spa Rally in Belgium recently cancelled, the popular rally based on the island of Gran Canaria will now play host to the season finale.
For the second event in a row, Devine will be joined by fellow Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy driver Josh McErlean while the PCRS team will run a third Hyundai i20 R5 for Pauric Duffy and Jeff Case. Devine said: “I really enjoy when other Irish drivers can do these events and especially when a lot of us are running the same team, in the same cars. For the Academy to be running a pair of cars again is fantastic and bodes well for the future. So many people from so many quarters have helped make this year become a reality and I’m forever grateful to them. To round out the year with a good performance would be brilliant for everyone involved.”
The rally will begin with a qualifying stage on Thursday afternoon which will decide road order for the weekend, and this will be followed by a ceremonial start in Las Palmas that evening. The competitive action will begin on Friday morning with nine stages totalling just under 100km. Saturday, the final day, sees a further 8 stages totalling just over 100km with the leading cars returning to the final time control at 4.30pm.
Rally Monza: 3-6 December 2020
Just days after contesting the FIA European Rally Championship qualifier, McErlean and co-driver Keaton Williams will head to ACI Rally Monza (3-6 December) for the WRC finale with the young duo set to make only their second-ever World Championship start. They will pilot a Hyundai i20 R5 in the WRC3 category of the event.
Josh McErlean will once again be behind the wheel of a Hyundai Motorsport Customer Racing i20 R5 on ACI Rally Monza. Image credit: Flat-Out Media Agency