This weekend will see Jonathan Cunningham (26) of Workington UK, originally from Galway, Ireland, travel back to his home country to compete in the Clare Stages Junior Rally. The event will be extra special for Cunningham as he will for the first time drive the Fiesta R2 on the event. The R2 is a significant step up from his usual rally car as it boasts a five speed Sadev sequential gearbox, uprated two way adjustable Reiger dampers and uprated four pot AP racing calipers. The car is designed and built by M-Sport Ltd, the company behind the Ford World Rally Team. This exciting oppourtunity has come about as a result of winning the UK Fiesta Sport Challenge, which Cunningham wrapped up in July on the Manx International Rally.
The Ford Fiesta R2 will allow Cunningham to gauge his pace against championship regulars who already have class R2 machinery. The main aim for Cunningham will be to complete the four stage event and set some competitive times, but the event also makes up a round of the Irish Junior Rally Championship and is a nominating round for the Billy Coleman Award. This shootout based award is designed for up and coming young drivers and gives the eventual winner a chance to compete for one of the most prestigious prizes in motorsport to help support their 2011 rally season. Cunningham has a shot of gaining a “wildcard” entry for the competition at the Clare event and so will be pushing hard to try to impress the panel of judges.
Cunningham and Millener celebrating the Fiesta SportTrophy Title on The Manx International Rally
Cunningham will be joined at the rally by regular co-driver Richard Millener (26) from Workington, UK who will fly over at the weekend for the event. Although the use of the Fiesta R2 is currently a one off drive, there are discussions in place that could see the duo compete in the full 2011 British Rally Championship as part of a larger team. In preperation for this weekend both Cunningham and Millener have been busy working on all aspects of the sport including media activities, driver and co-driver training and personal fitness. Last weekend saw both compete in the Bala Triathlon in North Wales. The tri consisted of a one mile open water swim, 24 mile bike and 6 mile run. Cunningham completed the course in 2hrs 47 with Millener two minutes behind him – a successful tri debut, in addition to events like this both regularly attend training sessions with M-Sport performance trainer Barry Jonson.
This weekend will mark the start of a busy few weeks for the pairing, the Clare Stages Rally is closely followed next weekend by the Trackrod Rally Yorkshire based in the seaside resort of Scarborough, which is the final round of the British Rally Championship. Although already crowned champions in the Fiesta Sport Trophy the Trackrod rally is a part the BRC Challenge where Cunningham can still has a mathematical chance to take overall victory as well as winning the RC3 class drivers award.
Driver Jonathan Cunningham said: The opportunity I have been given this weekend is a great chance for us to be able to get a feeling for the Fiesta R2 and has only come around because of the success we have had in the Fiesta Sport Trophy this year. It is only a one-off at the moment – but there are one or two possibilitys that we are working on for the future and this gives us a great chance to get a taster of the car. It is going to be a busy couple of weeks with Clare and Trackrod back-to-back but we are as prepared as we can be and when Ricahrd challenged me to the Bala Triathlon – it was too good an opportunity to miss. It was hard work, but the training we have been doing with Barry Johnson up at M-Sport seems to be paying off!
Navigator Richard Millener said: It’s fantastic that we have this oppourtunity to try out the new Fiesta R2 and after the event me and Jonny can sit down to try and work out some of the options that we have for next year. We have a three year plan, with this being our first and we are both determined to meet our aspirations, and with both of us prepared to make the necessary effort to succeed we will not give up easy. For now however, the main priority is to get good results in Clare and on the Trackrod, and for me personally is to improve my fitness further so I beat Jonny in the next tri!
Details on the FiestaSport Challenge can be found at www.fiestasporttrophy.co.uk