J1000 Crews to tackle Wexford Rally Sprint
MIJRS J1000 crews head to Wexford Rally Sprint this weekend. Pic by Cian Donnellan.
The 2024 Motorsport Ireland Junior Rally Series fires back into life this weekend for our J1000 competitors, as they head to the Southeast to tackle the Wexford Motor Club’s Albatros Sprint, one of two sealed surface events contested by our youngest competitors as part of the dual-surface MIJRS season.
Ireland’s sole national Junior Mix-Surface championship, the MIJRS is quickly becoming a vital step in the development of a host of upcoming and exciting Irish rallying talent, and looking at the bumper entries on all rounds so far this year, it’s clear to see the huge buzz around developing young talent at present in Irish Rallying.
In 2024, the J1000 battle is contested across four rounds of the Sligo Pallets Forest Rally Championship, a pair of loose surface Rally Sprints (Imokilly on July 6th & Laois on October 19th) and two events on Tarmac (This weekend’s Wexford Sprint and the Carrick-on-Suir Sprint on August 24th)
The 2024 season kicked off with the Killarney Forest Rally for the J1000 class, and once more the rise and rise of this trailblazing formula to attract youngsters into the sport seems to show no signs of stopping its incredible growth. This year has seen a staggering 22 drivers register for the MIJRS, and it would be Danny Brady who left Castleisland on delighted to have claimed the first maximum score of the year with a thoroughly deserved victory.
Although he would only go fastest on the opening test, a controlled drive by the youngster in his newly built VW Up would see him cross the finish line with just 8.2 seconds to spare over Tommy Cronin, with Ryan Caldwell finishing in third ahead of Ross Ryan in fourth.
The rough nature of the stages led to issues for some of the hard charging drivers, with both Tommy Furlong and David Travers hampered by mechanical issues that saw them drop back, the latter left frustrated to have dropped out of the podium positions on what was a great drive with issues on the final stage.
At the end of the second event of the season, the Carrick-on-Suir Forest Rally, much was rightfully made of the meteoric rise of Oisin McShane, the youngster claiming victory on only his second event, but the true mark of the talent was the incredible time set on the final stage to claim the win. Trailing the experienced Ross Ryan by more than 10 seconds, McShane left nothing on the table to claim victory, with Ryan resigned to second and the pair joined by Tommy Cronin on the podium, those points enough to see him lead the MIJRS standings.
The 2024 MIJRS season will be long remembered by the many J1000 debutants including David Slattery, Morgan Moore, Adam Ronan, Gemma Hallinan, Frank Wharton, Sean White, Gareth McGettrick, Rhys McElhinney, Darragh McEnroe, Daniel Ormond, Charlie Browne & Jack Cullinane who have all started their rally careers this year.
While the J1000 crews tackle this weekends Wexford Sprint, the other MIJRS classes return to action on July 14th with the Stonethrowers Rally. The action in Wexford kicks off from 9am on Sunday, with four runs over the 3.2km route laid on by Wexford Motor Club.
Cian Donnellan
MIJRS PRO