Of the talented 10, eight drivers will also be eligible for honours in the FIA Junior ERC Championship, which is resuming after a gap of almost two months, with Kyle McBride and Welsh wildcard Ioan Lloyd completing the line-up in the category for Rally4 and Rally5 cars.
For Peugeot 208 Rally4-driving Lloyd, JDS Machinery Rali Ceredigion provides a huge opportunity to showcase his ability on an international stage for the first time. The 21-year-old said: “Rali Ceredigion is a special event for us, being the most local rally on the calendar. The competition will no doubt be tough, but we’re looking forward to the challenge. It’s really exciting to have been selected as a wildcard entry for the ERC, so hopefully we can make the most of it.”
Lloyd, who finished as the top Junior BRC contender on the all-Tarmac event last year, continued: “I’m really excited about Rali Ceredigion. There’s always a big buzz around it locally, and it gets a bigger following every year. It's fantastic to have the ERC coming this year. It’ll be an interesting measure against the very quickest Rally4 drivers out there as well. Obviously we want a good result but we still need to be there at the end.”
JDS Machinery Rali Ceredigion could be the first of many appearances in the ERC for Lloyd as he’s in the battle to win the Stellantis Motorsport Rally Cup, which is part of the itinerary this weekend and rewards the champion with a significant budget contribution towards a Junior ERC campaign in 2025.
Swede Mille Johansson (Opel Corsa Rally4) tops the ERC4 order by 22 points ahead of Daniel Polášek (Peugeot), runner-up in class on Barum Czech Rally Zlín earlier this month. Calle Carlberg, another Opel-driving Swede, is third, six points behind Polášek. The trio are eligible for Junior ERC, which will be previewed on FIAERC.com later today (Wednesday).
For Kyle McBride (below), meanwhile, JDS Machinery Rali Ceredigion marks a belated ERC debut. The Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy-backed driver had hoped to mount a Junior ERC bid in 2024 but has instead split his time between competing in the Irish Tarmac and British championships.
How to watch?
Fans across the globe can experience the excitement and drama of the ERC with every stage of every rally broadcast Rally.tv platform. In addition, the ERC is broadcast in a number of countries around the world and fans are advised to check local listings for details.
JDS Machinery Rali Ceredigion 2024: the key numbers
Stages: 14
Competitive distance: 184.16 kilometres
Total distance: 652.43 kilometres
Ioan Lloyd action image by Colin Hughes
Chile
Poland
China