Dean Raftery enters the World Rally Championship
Posted: May 4, 2015 7:46 AM
Dean Raftery will take the biggest leap of his short career as he enters this month's Vodafone Rallye de Portugal and the FIA Junior World Rally Championship. The 21st - 24th May event is the second round of the JWRC championship and the 23 year old Galway man will drive a Citroen DS3 R3MAX built by C- Sport. Broderick Motorsport will join the Galway outfit to run the 1600cc turbocharged Citroen. Raftery will be up against some of the best young drivers in the world in a bid to win the prestigious JWRC prize drive offered by Citroen Racing.
The Galway talent has had several successful years behind the wheel and his progression through the sport has been a model that many young drivers aspire to. After two successful years competing in the British Rally Championship, Raftery received his first taste of WRC glory at last year's Wales Rally GB when he drove his Fiesta R2 to a podium result. His recent achievements were recognised by the Billy Coleman Young Driver of the Year panel who awarded him the prestigious award. Thanks to the award from the Motorsport Ireland and the Irish Sport Council, Raftery has been able to secure a deal to build a brand new Citroen DS3 R3MAX and tackle the World Championship series with fellow Irishman and experienced co-driver John Higgins alongside. Previous winners of the JWRC include nine times World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb and current World Rally Champion Sebastien Ogier.
"It's all been rather hastily arranged but this has been my goal ever since I first started competing, it truly is a dream come true for me", says an excited Raftery. "We have been working really hard on this pretty much since last year's Wales Rally GB and thanks to the Billy Coleman Award and my sponsors I can take my career to the next level. This will be like nothing I've ever done before and it will be a steep learning curve on the first round. But I'm ready for a new challenge and entering the JWRC proves just that".
There won't be much time to prepare for the new challenge as Raftery will head to Portugal for the event recce in a just a few weeks but he hopes to get his first taste of the DS3 before he leaves and cram in as much seat time as possible.
"We are on the back foot a little as many of the drivers already have years of experience in the DS3 but I'm confident of picking it up quickly. It's a wildly different car to the Fiesta that I'm used to but my recent Galway outing in the MINI WRC has acclimatised me well to a quicker car. It won't be easy, there are lots of "firsts" on the event but I'm really looking forward to the rally"
Raftery will once again be supported by Bluebird Care, Midland Tyres, Citroen main dealer - Kenny Galway, Motorsport Ireland and The Irish Sports Council.
The Portuguese event provides over 350km of competitive stages based in the North West coastal city of Porto. After the ceremonial start on Thursday 21st May a super special spectator stage will warm up the crews before three full days of action lie ahead, finishing on Sunday afternoon.
For more information on Dean, updates from the event and his rallying career, visit www.deanraftery.com
Cave Heads Drive DMACK Fiesta Trophy Entries
Posted: April 29, 2015 1:09 PM
Eleven drivers representing nine countries will line up for the opening round of the 2015 Drive DMACK Fiesta Trophy at Rally de Portugal next month - all with the aim of battling to win the biggest prize in rallying. The Trophy is run across six point-scoring rounds on five events of the FIA World Rally Championship, with the winner securing a full WRC 2 season in 2016.
The list is headed by the UK's Tom Cave and Craig Parry, runners-up in last year's series, who are joined by another five crews returning from 2014. They include front-runner Marius Aasen, rookie champion Max Vatanen, Ghislain de Mevius, Nicolas Amiouni and, winner of the final round, Nil Solans from Spain.
American Will Hudson, guided by experienced co-driver Alex Gelsomino, Edoardo Bresolin from Italy and British Junior Rally Champion Gus Greensmith will join the returning drivers, while Dutch stars Kevin van Deijne and Mats van den Brand complete the line-up.
Van den Brand takes his place as part of his prize for winning the Trophy shoot-out at the end of last season. Originally planned to be a one-off drive in a Ford Fiesta R5, series organisers M-Sport and DMACK, working with the Dutch federation KNAF, agreed that it would be much more beneficial for the 24-year-old to contest the full Trophy and gain experience from five WRC events.
The cost-effective series, pitched as the stepping-stone into WRC for young and career-focused rally drivers, is set to provide the platform for another series of intense battles and close competition. Racing with M-Sport's newly-developed Ford Fiesta R2, powered by a 1.0 litre, turbocharged EcoBoost engine, competitors will battle it out on both gravel and asphalt rounds using control DMACK tyres.
After the gravel stages of Portugal from 21-24 May, the Trophy heads to Poland and Finland before the only all-asphalt round at Rallye Deutschland in August. The final event in Spain will offer two sets of championship points ensuring the battle for the title goes right down to wire. With the opportunity to drop a score from one round - the format allows other drivers to join from round two in Poland.
Winners of last year's inaugural Trophy, Estonian Sander P?rn and Brit James Morgan, will kick off their prize programme in Portugal at the wheel of an M-Sport-run Fiesta R5. Alongside Jari Ketomaa, they will form a strong pairing in DMACK's defence of its WRC 2 Teams world championship title.
The confirmed drivers are:
Name Age Country
Marius Aasen 23 Norway
Nicolas Amiouni 26 Lebanon
Mats van den Brand 24 Netherlands
Edoardo Bresolin 24 Italy
Tom Cave 23 UK
Kevin van Deijne 25 Netherlands
Gus Greensmith 18 UK
Will Hudson 29 USA
Ghislain De Mevius 26 Belgium
Nils Solans 22 Spain
Max Vatanen 24 Finland
Dick Cormack, DMACK managing director, said:
"The Drive DMACK Fiesta Trophy is set to build on a hugely-successful season in 2014 which saw the championship decided on the very last loop of stages. The huge prize has again attracted a pleasant mix of rookie and more experienced drivers and it's encouraging that DMACK can help so many talented drivers get proper WRC experience."
Malcolm Wilson OBE, M-Sport managing director, said:
"It is great to see another strong international field in the Drive DMACK series, we have some of the brightest future talent in the sport from all over the world competing again this year. With Elfyn Evans' first WRC podium in Argentina, Craig Breen heading the FIA European Championship and Pontus Tidemand leading the FIA Asia Pacific series, it?s clear that the format works. With the new EcoBoost-powered car, which is new to everyone, it looks like the pieces are in place for another great season."
Tom Cave, 2014 runner-up, said:
"It's great to be back in the Drive DMACK Fiesta Trophy again and we?re aiming to be fighting again for wins this year. The series provided me with fantastic experience last year and I aim to build on that to come back even stronger. I'm really excited with the prospect of driving the new Fiesta and we've been preparing hard for the first round in Portugal."
Mats van den Brand, 2014 shoot-out winner, said:
"This is a great opportunity and again I thank M-Sport and DMACK for putting their faith in me. Taking part in five WRC events as part of a competitive championship is fantastic and something I?m preparing hard for. I intend to give it my best shot and make the most of this great chance."
Rally Guide / Details
Posted: March 6, 2015 11:01 AM
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