From tight and technical forestry lanes to the fast and flowing windfarm complexes, it’s fair to say that the season opening Killarney Forest Rally posed a true test of a huge field of excited competitors as they embarked upon their 2024 Motorsport Ireland Junior Rally Series (MIJRS) campaign with the loose-surface opener.
Last year’s J1000 event winner Jack Kennedy and Ciara Duggan both enjoyed their first events behind the wheel of R2 spec Ford Fiestas, it would be Jack Harris in his R2T Fiesta that would take the class win and leave Killarney with maximum points.
The experience gained having made the swap to the Class 2A car earlier than his rivals gave Harris a real advantage, but we would expect some great battling between the trio across 2024.
In the J1000 class, 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 Sunday delighted to have claimed the first maximum score of the year with a thoroughly deserved victory.
While J1000 has boomed in recent years, so too has the remarkable Class 2 (Rally4) taken off.
The entry list for the Castleisland event was brimmed full of some of Ireland brightest future Rally Stars in the cutting edge FWD machinery capable of delivering incredible results, but it would be a remarkable opening stage performance by Kyle McBride that would ultimately see him claim the class win, as well as the Race & Rally Event Win, in his Peugeot 208 Rally4.
