Unearthing new Irish talents
How one scheme is aiming to find the future World Rally champions
Irish rallying isn’t short of famous sons. Andrew Nesbitt, Austin Machale, Frank Meagher and Bertie Fisher; there’s a load of superstars who are worshipped on Irish shores but aren’t revered in the same manner across the globe. But thanks to the fledgling Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy, that’s all about to change.
The combination of a secondary school teacher who’s also a farmer, Irish motorsport’s governing body and the 1982 Irish Tarmac champion has led to the academy’s formulation which runs as an extension to the prestigious Billy Coleman Award. Co-ordinated by Sean Mchugh and supported by John Coyne through the Team Ireland Foundation, the academy aims to provide young Irish drivers with all the elements they need to succeed.
Mchugh says: “We had the difficulty that we worked with the drivers for one year, and then they were just gone. We had no lead-in and no follow-on, so we decided to revamp the programme.
“The funding is only one element of it. What is working very well for us at the moment is it’s created a very clear pathway for the younger drivers, the guys that aren’t in the system at the moment, who can see what they need to do to get involved. They need to get into a homologated car, starting with Junior 1000, 1600, R2 and if you tick all those boxes we will put you in an R5. It’s an open-ended programme with a view to get a guy into a seat at the top level.”
There were a couple of development days last year but the academy, as it is now, congregated in early 2020. Callum Devine finds himself as the torchbearer for the programme as he takes on the best of Europe in the European Rally Championship this year. But James Wilson and Josh Mcerlean are both also driving PCRS Hyundai i20 R5s in the Irish Forestry and British Rally Championships respectively.
Devine scooped the 2017 Billy Coleman Award after winning the JBRC and used his prize money to contend the JWRC in 2018. He says he would’ve really benefited from the support that’s now in place.
“The structure probably wasn’t so great [before],” he explains. “The academy [is something] they needed with somebody like Sean Mchugh who gives you some great contacts and takes some of the pressure away.
“We learned plenty from the WRC but getting some sort of help before [would’ve been useful]. But at the same time we’re still in the academy now which is a fantastic thing, we very much appreciate that we’re still in it. Of course, I’m probably the one with the most experience and it’s good to help out some of the other drivers coming through, but I still learn stuff out of it. The programme is quite good as it tries to set everyone’s own goals rather than ‘look at Callum, everyone else has to do what he’s doing’.”
As well as Devine, Wilson and Mcerlean, there’s a gaggle of R2 drivers in William Creighton, David Kelly and Brian Brady who are all involved and contesting this year’s JBRC as well as Derek Mackarel who’s continuing to pedal his little Vauxhall Nova hard in Ireland. In total, 11 drivers are part of the system with youngsters Stephen Reynolds, Kieran Reen,
Shane Kenneally and Nigel Roche all involved too.
“This is our second year and James
Wilson was the first driver to come into the academy and benefit from the expanded programme,” Mchugh says.
“We worked very closely with him last year. The idea was to try and establish him in R2 and then sample R5 with the help of Philip Case and his PCRS firm who have been big believers in this project from the start. That’s helped us create a strong bond with Andrew Johns and Hyundai Customer Racing too. James really has been the trailblazer for us in terms of proving that you can step out of an R2 and get into an R5 straight away and be competitive.”
Wilson picks up the story: “I won the Billy Coleman Award in 2018 which gave me the €50,000 support throughout 2019 which was always what the Billy Coleman Award was. [But] I was told on the day I won in Dublin that there will be more basically, so I had the shock of actually winning it and the shock of getting told there’s going to be R5 drives as well so my mind was fried that day.
“I wanted to take a wee step back to take two steps forward this year,” he adds, “so the best decision for me to make was to do the Irish Forestry Championship. I feel that I can learn the Hyundai a lot better with there being a bit less pressure.”
The tactic seems to have worked, as
Wilson dominated the season opener back in February to sweep to all five stage wins. He puts a lot of that down to the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy.
“I’ve put a lot of effort in to training and my diet and different things, again all to do with the academy,” he says.
“I’d never felt as good or as fit heading into an event. On the start line I was just feeling more confident. I knew
I was ready for it, I knew I was fit for it and then going across the finish line on that first stage it hadn’t even taken a breath out of me, I hadn’t even broken sweat. When I finished that first stage I just knew. I said I think I’ve won that first stage and I just told myself I want to win every one after this.”
A lot of that is down to the work of personal trainer Kevin Walsh and sports psychologist Alan Heary. On the academy’s first development day, Walsh worked with everyone to create a base target in terms of fitness that would be constantly better throughout the year.
“We’ve got a Whatsapp group as obviously we can’t meet up at the minute,” Creighton explains, “so Kevin’s constantly sending in stuff we can work on [at home] and if anybody in the academy has any questions or needs some help, there’s a point of contact there.”
And on that vein, a meeting on
Zoom has been scheduled for every Monday evening to keep providing members with relevant training and support including media and social media skills to make the drivers as presentable as possible.
“The Motorsport Ireland Academy is especially important in these current circumstances,” Creighton adds. “If I wasn’t part of this academy now, I’d just be waiting for the next rally and maybe lacking a bit of motivation but there’s definitely a sense of stay focused, keep training and working towards your goals just now and it’ll pay off once we get back on the stages. Not many people can say they have a team around them as well as their own helping and supporting them, it’s a wonderful opportunity.”
Mcerlean says: “The biggest part I find beneficial is working with the performance coach [Heary].
Obviously you always have doubts in your mind about one thing or another. You pretty much just open up to him, tell him your thoughts and where you can improve. It’s the simple things that you overlook and he comes back to them. It’s pretty basic at the start, things like checklists, there’s nothing mad in it but it’s just trying to fine tune it as such. It’s not as deep as you’d probably think it would be but it’s a very interesting topic to be truthful.”
What’s clear is that everything is being done to maximise the probability of an Irishman reaching the WRC.
Just four months into a new season, Creighton already believes the absence of Kris Meeke means the
WRC “loses its edge” so the impact of homegrown heroes reaching the big-time can’t be underestimated.
But fortunately, because of the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy, don’t bet against that happening.
Even if Craig Breen doesn’t land himself a WRC seat again, there’s a gaggle of his compatriots preparing to smash down that door and fly the Irish flag across the globe.
Mchugh: “We’re looking to develop not just our drivers but our relationships with people like Hyundai with the view of getting into that shop window for one of our drivers to step into a world drive. We’re here to make a mark.”