MI Rally Academy crews in action this weekend in Kerry and Spain

There are Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy members to follow at home and abroad this weekend as crews take on the Circuit of Kerry Stages Rally and Spain’s Rallye La Llana.

After a stunning performance with Jon Armstrong on the West Cork Rally, Donegal-based co-driver Shane Byrne switches his focus back to the National Rally Championship alongside Desi Henry.

The Citroen C3 Rally2 duo built their confidence throughout the National Rally Championship’s slippery Midlands opener earlier this month. A string of top-three stage times helped Henry and Byrne climb from seventh to a fourth-place finish in Longford. Seeded second for the Circuit of Kerry, they will be hoping for an even better result this Sunday.

The Ford Fiesta Rally4 crew of Jack Harris and Aaron O’Regan lead the Circuit of Kerry’s Rally4 contenders after an encouraging top-five finish against stiff opposition last time out. Their positive Rally4 debut secured third-place points in the MI Junior Rally Series with the Circuit of Kerry representing the dual-surface championship’s second round of the year.

“I am excited for this weekend,” said 19-year-old Harris. “There is another great entry so we will have plenty of competition in the Rally4 class.

“The stages look really technical and fast, so it will be an exciting challenge for us. The goal again is to get more tarmac mileage in the Rally4 Fiesta and get more points on the board for the MIJRS championship.”

Junior European Rally Championship hopefuls Craig Rahill and Conor Smith have entered Spain’s Rallye La Llana in a bid to gain experience of the unique Spanish stages ahead of next weekend’s ERC opener.

The Billy Coleman Award winner scored a class win on the Midland Stages Rally at the start of April when he was trialling Hankook tyres for the first time. This weekend’s Rallye La Llana will give him a chance to get another 118 stage kilometres under his belt over the two-day Spanish Tarmac Championship event.

Rahill is seeded second among the Rally4 contenders but will be fully focused on building his confidence in new conditions ahead of ERC’s Rally Sierra Morena.

MI Rally Academy co-driver Killian McArdle also features in Rallye La Llana’s entry list. McArdle has teamed up with Ford Fiesta Rally3 pilot Casey Jay Coleman for the Catalunyan event which takes place over 10 stages on Friday and Saturday. They are also viewing Rallye La Llana as a warm-up for the opening round of ERC next week.