ERC
Big week in store in ERC Greatest Graduate contest
It’s a big week ahead in the ERC Greatest Graduate of the Modern Era competition as the search to find the FIA European Rally Championship’s best of the best reaches its climax.
With fans voting in two semi-finals and the grand finale this coming Friday, an exciting few days are in store.
It all starts tomorrow (Monday) when polls open for the first semi-final between the late Craig Breen, a five-time winner in the ERC, and Stéphane Lefebvre, the inaugural Junior ERC champion in 2014.
Both drivers reached the sport’s highest echelon, the FIA World Rally Championship, although Breen was more prolific in the top tier claiming nine podiums before his tragic passing in 2023.
Breen took his fifth and final ERC victory in 2016
© ERC
Lefebvre’s biggest achievements at global level were his capture of three outright stage wins and the 2014 Junior WRC and WRC3 crowns.
Semi-final two follows on Wednesday when Kajetan Kajetanowicz goes up against Adrien Fourmaux.
Kajetanowicz is the only driver in ERC history to win the title on three consecutive occasions. The Pole became WRC2 Challenger champion in 2023.
Fourmaux, who defeated Mārtiṇš Sesks in last Friday’s final quarter-final, won on his second of two ERC starts and has eight WRC podiums to his name ahead of next week’s season-deciding Rally Saudi Arabia.
Voting for the first semi-final begins on Monday and is available by the ERC’s social media channels.
Who is the ERC Greatest Graduate?
© ERC
ERC Greatest Graduate explained
Since the ERC was restructured in 2004 into the hugely successful format recognisable today, an endless stream of drivers have built experience competing at European level either at the start of or during their rise to the sport’s highest echelon, the FIA World Rally Championship.
Throughout November, FIAERC.com is highlighting 16 drivers – selected by the ERC’s media team – who have done just that. And it’s calling on fans of the championship to help decide the best of the best graduates through an online that closes with the grand finale on Friday 28 November.
Employing bracketology, voting is available through the ERC’s social media channels with a minimum 24-hour window to vote for each pairing. The winner will be announced on Saturday 29 November.
