Ambitious Meeke makes Toyota switch
THE Rally rollercoaster rolls on. Firstly, the World Rally Championship is off to sunny Spain with everything to play for. Secondly the Toyota team will be the toast of British and Irish fans on the beach in Salou.
They’ll be downing a lager, grateful to the Japanese team, who have handed our top driver, Kris Meeke, a get-out-of-jail card and a deal for next season.
Meeke, from Northern Ireland, said he was still hungry to achieve things in the sport and that the negotiation to sign had been simple.
Meeke’s last great scalp in this sport was to win in Spain last year. This year, however, fans are expecting a weekend long dog-fight between the championship leader, Thierry Neuville and the defending champion, Seb Ogier.
The title race rarely gets to Spain alive.
Frenchman, Ogier has normally wrapped it up long before. Now it’s nip and tuck and too close to call. Ogier trails a Belgian, Thierry Neuville. There’s no room for error.
And, as if beating one driver called Sebastian wasn’t difficult enough, Neuville will have two to contend with in Catalunya. Enter stage left – a wild card entry from Citroen, that man again, the nine-times former champion, Seb Loeb.
A 24-carrat distraction if ever there was one, Loeb is an eight-time winner in Spain – something he has achieved in three different cars. Decent.
On top of that, it’s widely expected that this year’s Spanish round will be the French legend’s last ever drive in the championship.
Understandably, keeping a level head and cool nerves will be essentials if Neuville wants to take the season-long title race to the final round in Australia next month. He mustn’t think of the pressure because failure means we’ll have a French championship winner called Sebastien for the 15th consecutive year!