2024 Stellantis Motorsport Rally Cup IRE & UK winners Ioan Lloyd and co-driver Sion Williams are bidding for a strong result on Rally Poland this weekend (June 13-15) in round three of the FIA Junior European Rally Championship. After showing front-running pace on the opening two rounds, the young Welsh crew will be working hard to secure a very good finish on what promises to be another tough rally.
Lloyd, 22-years old from Llandysul in West Wales and his co-driver Williams are contesting the high-profile international series in a Peugeot 208 Rally4 as part of their prize for winning the Stellantis Cup. The Junior ERC is one of the most competitive and prestigious junior rally championships in the world.
Before travelling to Poland, Lloyd paid tribute to his former co-driver and friend Dai Roberts, who tragically lost his life in an accident on the Jim Clark Rally in late May. Lloyd said: “I have a lot to be thankful to Dai for. He was always really good and taught me different things with the car. We had a lot of good times together and I have a lot to thank him for in my early career, for sure.
“Dai was a world class co-driver but he was also a very good driver and that helped me in my junior days and as soon as I turned 17 and got an Escort. We had probably one of our best results on Rali Adfer Coedwigoedd Cymru in 2020 as rallying re-started after Covid. I have a lot of good memories of rallying with Dai.”
But now the focus must be on Rally Poland, the second and final gravel rally in this year’s Junior ERC. Lloyd says: “It should be a good rally. It is quite fast in nature and the ground seems quite soft, so the ruts will be quite big on the second pass. But I don’t think it will be as rough as Hungary.
“Obviously it’s my first time on Rally Poland and it looks like a really cool rally. I’m looking forward to it and we’re going there on the back of some really strong pace in the two previous rounds. It’s unfortunate that we had the wheel failure in Hungary as I don’t think that result really reflects our progress. We’re certainly aiming for a good run in Poland.
“What makes the Junior ERC so good is that there’s always strong competition. I have to try and remember it’s our first year at this level but I want to show some good speed at the same time and try and maximise the opportunity.”
After a team test session on Wednesday, the rally starts on Friday with the shakedown stage, the ceremonial start and super special stage before two full days of competition on Saturday and Sunday. The rally is based in the town of Mikolajki in north-west Poland and covers 120 competitive miles in 14 special stages.
Ioan Lloyd is proud to be supported by David Byrne Auto Repairs, West Wales Rally Spares, Huw Jeffreys and Sons Plumbing and Heating Engineers, Suirway Forklifts, Towy Works, Mark Jukes Containers, Allglass Anglia, ARE Refrigeration and Electrical, 2300 Club John Easson Award, Towy Electrical Ltd, BCC IT, Wyn Thomas Heating, Peugeot Sport UK/Ireland, Motordrive Seats, Castell Howell Foods, Garej Tyn y Pistyll, Monit Motorsport, Solid Designs, Gomer Press, Atech Racing, A1 Detailing, Neil Spain, Mintex, Kielder WT, Gareth Owens Building Contractor, Safety Devices International Ltd, TRS Safety Equipment and Abba Trees.
