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Motorsport Ireland is setting up a new Rally Academy to help promote and push Irish talent to the top of the World Rally Championship (WRC).
The WRC is experiencing a revival at the moment, with heavy manufacturer involvement from Ford, Toyota, Citroen, and Hyundai, but Irish drivers are currently absent. Craig Breen had been racing for Citroen last year but has been dropped this year, while Chris Meeke is technically from Northern Ireland, and doesn't race with a tricolour on the car.
To help remedy this, the Academy will pick its first pupils from the Billy Coleman Award nominees, and they will be joined by winners of the J1000, J1600 and R2 junior classes of national rallying. They'll be put through their paces, in a rigorous training programme, designed to give them the skills and ability to be able to compete at the highest level.
Leo Hassett, the CEO of Motorsport Ireland, said: "This new initiative is focused on creating a structured development programme for young Irish rally drivers and co-drivers and is designed to prepare them to compete on the world stage. It also adds value to the current Billy Coleman award system, which recognises our junior drivers competing in all classes of rally vehicles. All academy drivers and co-drivers will participate in a series of coaching events throughout the year which will include driving and co-driving theory, and practice on both sealed and loose surfaces, as well as fitness and media training."
The Academy is being funded by a donation from former rally driver John Coyne. John is a former Irish National Rally and Irish Tarmac Championship winner and is now the CEO at Western Digital, one of the world's top digital storage companies.
"The Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy is a great opportunity for me to give back to a sport that has provided me with so many great experiences over the years. I'm delighted to be involved with supporting this initiative to identify and nurture our young motorsport talent and help them progress and represent Ireland competitively on the world stage. I look forward to watching some of them competing in the WRC in the years ahead! I'd particularly like to thank Sean McHugh, Motorsport Ireland Billy Coleman Award Co-Ordinator for his leadership, enthusiasm and hard work in proposing and developing the details of the new Rally Academy program."
John Naylor, President of Motorsport Ireland, said: "This is an exciting time for up and coming rally talent in Ireland. With this additional funding, we can do so much more for our young drivers. Team Ireland has been funded up to now by John Campion of CJJ Holdings in the USA and it is great to welcome John Coyne on board as a major contributor. It is encouraging to see people such as John Campion and John Coyne giving back so much to our sport and hopefully it will encourage others to come on board as well."
Sean McHugh, Co-Ordinator of the Billy Coleman Award, said: "This donation will allow us to build on the success of the award over the last 20 years and facilitate an expansion of the project to get talented drivers into a training programme at a much younger age. We now can expand the level of support to the overall winner and runners up."