DAVID EVANS
“Whoever wins JWRC needs to build a career”
Two world titles will be decided in Llandudno this weekend. The Junior WRC scrap comes to ahead in real time, while MIHALO will take on NEXL and seven others in the esports WRC final on Saturday night. Gamer or not, if you’re in Llandudno at 1800hrs, Saturday, get to Venue Cymru and watch the nine finalists go head-to-head on 11 stages from the new WRC 8 game. I’m the first to admit I had very little interest in the virtual side of the sport until I went to last year’s esports final in Germany. It was mental. The pressure is insane and the excitement, off the charts.
Fortunately for the purist, Jon Armstrong – he’s a proper real-time rally star from Northern Ireland – is one of nine drivers lining up this weekend. He won last season and has to be worth a punt for back-to-back titles.
Marko Raisanen could, however, be a dark horse. The 45-year-old Finn lists his occupation as ‘student’ and is honest enough to admit he spends 40 hours a week on the game. That’s a lot of stage and screen time. Seems some things have changed since my own undergraduate days…
Twelve rallies ago 12,000 contestants started this year’s esports WRC and now we’re down to the final nine chasing a first prize of a Hyundai i20 road car and the kudos of standing on top of the virtual world. Watch it, it’ll be mega.
But, if you want to see the mud flung in a real-time world title decider then the JWRC’S for you. As usual, the race for the Junior title’s spiced up by double points for the finale (meaning just about everybody can claim to be part of the final-round thriller), but in reality it’s going to come down to the year’s pacemen, Tom Kristensson and Jan Solans.
Kristensson has accumulated more points, but dropped scores leaves the Spaniard out front. Essentially, Kristensson – a Swede who reckons this is a rally for him – needs to score two more points than Solans to secure the title.
Dennis Radstrom’s third, but needs to lift around 20 points out of the boys ahead to play himself into contention.
Whoever celebrates longest and loudest on Sunday afternoon, the Junior WRC needs them to kick on and make an impact with the Ford Fiesta R5 they win next season.
Yes, the Junior series has helped develop the careers of Sebastien Loeb, Dani Sordo, Elfyn Evans and Craig Breen and co. but it’s seven years since the Welshman won the WRC Academy (the 2011-2012 equivalent of JWRC).
Pontus Tidemand and Stephane Lefebvre have won since and both have enjoyed factory seats at the sport’s highest level – the Swede is part of M-sport Ford World Rally Team’s line-up this week in Wales – but they’re not exactly regular participants.
Simone Tempestini, Nil Solans and Emil Bergkvist are the last three champions and none of them have managed to sustain their career trajectory. Probably the biggest disappointment has been Solans, who dominated his Junior campaign, but struggled to transfer those results – for whatever reason – into WRC 2.
For the sake of the JWRC, Sunday’s champ needs to make something of next season.