The 2024 Stellantis Motorsport Rally Cup IRE & UK heads for the penultimate round of the season this weekend [29 September], as the highly regarded Cork 20 takes contenders onto asphalt for the final time this year.
Promoted by Race & Rally, the championship for both Peugeot 208 and Opel Corsa Rally4 machinery offers an on-event cash pot of €6,000 is available to the first five crews home at each round. Plus, the Junior champion at the end of the season will receive registration to the 2025 FIA Junior European Rally Championship, entry fees to six rounds of the Junior ERC and 12 tyres per round contested in the series, a prize worth almost €40,000.
With seven rounds already complete on both gravel and asphalt and in the UK and Ireland, it’s Keelan Grogan/Ayrton Sherlock who lead the championship – but only by a single point from the chasing Ioan Lloyd/Sion Williams. Kyle McBride/Darragh Mullen are third at present and although they lie 24 points shy of the lead, are still in contention for the title thanks to drop scores.
Technically, the title could be wrapped up by Grogan here, but it would require him to win, and his rivals not finish. Such is the level of competition and as we have seen all season long, anything is possible in the Stellantis Cup and with such career-changing prizes at stake, nothing can be ruled out.
And last time out on the gravel of the Voyonic Grampian Forest Rally was a perfect example, with only two Cup contenders making it to the finish ramp. However, the battleground of last month’s JDS Machinery Rali Ceredigion was in stark contrast with a fight for the podium developing across all three days.
The arrival of the FIA European Rally Championship at the event gave the progressive youngsters the perfect target and it was Lloyd who was seen by many as the pre-event favourite.
And it was a home win for the Welshman to bring him importantly back into the title fight thanks in part to Grogan’s lowly fifth-place finish due to going off the road on the second day. With McBride switching to an Opel Corsa Rally4 for the weekend, the Irishman was on for a solid score before late car issues put him down the order, meaning the fight for the title continues at speed in Cork.
The three title protagonists head into battle and will be joined by Ceredigion podium sitters Kalum Graffin/Mark McGeehan, as the youngsters continue to build their pace and experience. John O’Rourke is another to return to the fold, upholding the Opel Corsa representation in Cork.
The one-day blast of the Cork 20 Rally offers up eight stages and 109 kilometres of competitive action, comprising three stages repeated twice, plus a third run of the Mullentura and Badgers Hill tests.
