KELLY THE CLASS OF THE JUNIORS
Eamonn Kelly stunned the watching world with his performances against the vastly more experienced William Creighton in last year’s Junior BRC, but firmly established himself in
2022 with an extremely classy and mistake-free season to claim the title two rounds early.
There would be no winning start though – Norwegian interloper
Ola Nore Jr scoring the first-round maximum but by just 2.3 seconds. Although it wasn’t the plan at the time, that transpired to be the last the BRC saw of Nore and instead
Kelly faced off against a more familiar nemesis: Kyle White.
Kelly was a clear winner on the Jim Clark, but the Nicky Grist Stages was ceded to White despite some final stage heroics where Kelly “pushed like f***” on a puncture. But the result of the Grampian would heavily tilt the championship scales in Kelly’s direction. A puncture for White was bad, but the brake pipe it burst was worse – particularly as he retired under the exact same circumstances 12 months earlier.
Kelly won and teed himself up for the title on Rali Ceredigion, but a win in Wales was all that would do. Naturally, it’s what Kelly delivered to become the latest in a long line of Irish or Northern Irish drivers to claim Britain’s junior title. He stuck around for the Trackrod in order to secure the co-drivers’ title for Conor Mohan, but stepped up to R5 power for the Cambrian and managed to grab second overall as Johnnie Mulholland took the final JBRC win of the season.
“It’s unreal, I get a little random smile every day,” Kelly reflects. “Anyone who wants to be fast in the future has to prove themselves in a front-wheel-drive car and
I think we’ve proved we are capable of being fast. It reaffirms the belief you have in yourself that we can go on to be very quick in four-wheeldrive machinery.”