Punctures and suspension damage dampen Irish hopes on Acropolis Rally

Ireland’s World Rally Championship stars were hit by high temperatures and bruising stages on Greece’s Acropolis Rally with all four crews encountering trouble along the 17-stage event.

The Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy’s Josh McErlean and Eoin Treacy started Greece’s renowned gravel rally with an encouraging fastest time on the first pass of its shakedown stage.

Hopes of repeating that feat on the timed stages diminished when the M-Sport Ford crew picked up a puncture on stage two of the Acropolis Rally, the 26.8-kilometre Aghii Theodori test.

McErlean and Treacy stopped to change the punctured wheel, before climbing back up to 12th overall by Friday night after a string of top ten times.

Unfortunately, Saturday was to start in a similarly disheartening fashion when their Ford Puma Rally1 picked up suspension damage after clipping a rock on the 24.6-kilometre Pavliani stage. The Rally1 rookies refused to give up, though, repairing the damage stage-side and completing the loop’s remaining two tests.

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Their persistence paid off as they made it to the end of another gruelling WRC week sixth out of the Rally1 runners, reinstating their gravel potential with a top-five time on the Acropolis Rally’s penultimate stage.

“It has been a super demanding weekend for everyone; the team, the car, the crew,” McErlean reflected. “It is nice to know you can get through these kinds of events - we hit a massive hurdle yesterday morning when we clipped the rock, but we managed to fix the car to keep it going."

“Sunday was pretty okay, we have learned a lot from a driving perspective, and hopefully we can have a good test in Finland to prepare properly for the next two rallies.”

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MI Rally Academy’s Eamonn Kelly and Conor Mohan had climbed up to third in Junior WRC throughout a demanding and dusty Friday. Their well-managed drive came unstuck on Friday’s final Elatia test when suspension damage forced them to retire.

Their Ford Fiesta Rally3 was repaired overnight, although their Saturday was hindered by four punctures on the rocky Greek roads. Still, Kelly climbed back up the Junior WRC leaderboard, aided by second- and third-fastest stage times on Sunday.

Kelly’s searing speed on Sunday came despite having brake issues on the Acropolis Rally’s final day of action as he made it to the finish fifth in Junior WRC.

The Donegal driver will be looking forward to Junior WRC’s next round, the flat-out Rally Finland.

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Aaron Johnston’s Acropolis Rally hopes took a hit when his Toyota Yaris Rally1 suffered a puncture on the same stage as McErlean, Friday’s opening Aghii Theodori test.

Alongside Takamoto Katsuta, the Toyota duo fought back up to fifth overall by Saturday’s midday service after completing a lock-out of eight top-five stage times in a row.

That run was cruelly ended when a slide off-road got their Yaris Rally1 stuck with the end of stage 11 in sight. Katsuta and Johnston returned under super-rally regulations for Sunday’s four stages, but a puncture on Tarzan denied a shot at securing Power Stage points.

Cavan’s James Fulton continued his season alongside Japan’s Yuki Yamamoto. Their Toyota Yaris Rally2 stopped on stage three with suspension damage but returned to action on Saturday morning to set top-ten stage times in WRC2 over the next two days.