IOAN LLOYD HEADS TO SPAIN FOR JUNIOR ERC OPENER
31 MARCH 2025 15:20
Rising Welsh rally star Ioan Lloyd will open his campaign in the FIA Junior European Rally Championship on Rally Sierra Morena in Spain on April 4-6.
Lloyd, 22-years old from Llandysul in West Wales, and his co-driver Sion Williams, are contesting the high-profile international series in a Peugeot 208 Rally4 from Tagai Racing Technology (TRT) based in Hungary. The Junior ERC is one of the most competitive and prestigious junior rally championships in the world.
The six-round championship opens in Spain next weekend and then visits Hungary in May, Poland in June, Italy in July, the Czech Republic in August, and Croatia in early October. Lloyd and Williams will be part of a very strong four-car team from TRT, which includes Rally2 cars for Mads Ostberg and Max McRae and Rally4 cars for Lloyd and young Irishman Keelan Grogan.
Lloyd’s biggest rallying programme to date opens on the 42nd running of Rally Sierra Morena, based in Cordoba. This all-asphalt event is a hugely popular rally on the Spanish calendar and alongside a bumper entry for the ERC, there are no less than 22 contenders in the Junior ERC with young crews from all over Europe. Lloyd and Williams will start as the ninth crew in the JERC ranks.
The action starts with a super special stage in Cordoba on Friday evening, but the meat of the rally comes in two long days on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday features 60 competitive miles with three special stages repeated, and Sunday has a similar format, covering 71 stage miles in three long stages repeated. In total, the rally covers 130 competitive miles and 280 road miles.
Lloyd said: “We don’t know too much about the rally apart from watching on-board footage from previous events. So it is a new challenge. The roads look fantastic but with very different characteristics for the stages. It will take a bit of adapting from one to another and that will be part of the challenge. There's a really long stage of 18 miles and that will be really, really cool, but very tricky. It's a new challenge for us and there are a lot more factors and things that we haven't had to tackle before.
Ioan and Sion will be making their own route notes for the event. “We have two passes on the Thursday and it will be a long day, but hopefully we can get a good set of notes.
“There is an amazing buzz around the rally. There are 22 juniors in total and they're all really good quality. I'm really looking forward to it. It'll be challenging, for sure. I think we can only do our best and see where we're at. It’s difficult to put any targets on it, because it's the first rally of the season and it's our first proper European rally. We'll try our best, for sure. It's going to be mighty!”
Ioan Lloyd is proud to be supported by David Byrne Auto Repairs, West Wales Rally Spares, Huw Jeffreys and Sons Plumbing and Heating Engineers, Suirway Forklifts, Towy Works, Mark Jukes Containers, Allglass Anglia, ARE Refrigeration and Electrical, 2300 Club John Easson Award, Towy Electrical Ltd, BCC IT, Wyn Thomas Heating, Peugeot Sport UK/Ireland, Motordrive Seats, Castell Howell Foods, Garej Tyn y Pistyll, Monit Motorsport, Solid Designs, Gomer Press, Atech Racing, A1 Detailing, Neil Spain, Mintex, Kielder WT, Gareth Owens Building Contractor, Safety Devices International Ltd, TRS Safety Equipment and Abba Trees.
The full schedule for the FIA Junior European Rally Championship is:
Apr 4-6 Rally Sierra Morena (Spain)
May 9-11 Rally Hungary
Jun 13-15 Rally Poland
Jul 4-6 Rally di Roma Capitale (Italy)
Aug 15-17 Barum Czech Rally Zlin (Czech Republic)
Oct 3-5 Croatia Rally
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