Johansson’s success in Hankook-equipped
Junior ERC earns him a season-long campaign in the 2025 FIA Junior WRC
Championship at the wheel of a Ford Fiesta Rally3, when he will follow in the
wheel tracks of previous champions Norbert Maior (2023) and Laurent Pellier
(2022).
“It’s really good,” said 19-year-old
Johansson, the first Swedish Junior ERC champion since Emil Bergkvist in 2015.
“The team has always delivered a good-performing car, no problems all season.
All the luck we didn’t have last season we had this season with good
preparations for each event. I’m really happy because all the hard work paid
off. Now we are in a full season in Junior WRC next year and I’m really happy for that
as well.”
Having initially trailed fellow Swede and
Opel Corsa Rally4 driver Calle Carlberg, Johansson moved in front when Carlberg
was forced to change a damaged front-left tyre on SS7. But McRae reached the
overnight halt just 3.3sec behind Johansson and moved ahead on SS13, the first
of Sunday’s stages to run after accidents caused SS11 and SS12 to be halted.
Leading by 12.8sec starting the Power
Stage, Scotland’s McRae secured his second win of the season in his Peugeot 208
Rally4 by going fastest on the Power Stage.
“Today was not easy at all to get the time
back,” McRae, 19, said. “There wasn’t much time to get back but having only two
stages to do that in tricky conditions was super-tough. We’ve had a very smart
head on us and we did exactly what we should have done.”
Timo Schulz took his second Junior ERC
podium of the year in third with ACI Team Italia’s Davide Pesavento a
season-best fourth. Calle Carlberg fought his way back to fifth, coming home
10.8sec behind his Italian rival, with Czech Daniel Polášek sixth after a late
scare.
“On the first stage today we could drive I
crashed in the same place as Chris Ingram, I went off in the ditch and we broke
the steering so the car was not going straight and it was almost impossible to
steer on the right-hand corners,” Polášek said.
Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy’s Aoife
Raftery warmed-up for the upcoming Beyond Rally Women’s Driver Development
Programme training camp in Poland by setting two top-five stage times on
her way to seventh place. But her team-mate, Jack Brennan, rolled into
retirement on SS13.
Max McRae also took the ERC4 category win
with Johansson claiming the title laurels. Welsh wildcard Ioan Lloyd finished
fifth as Kyle McBride was delayed by a water pipe issue heading to the final
stage, which cost him 3min 30sec of penalties.
The Hankook-supplied 2024 FIA Junior ERC
Championship concludes in Poland next month when Rally Silesia hosts the action
from 11 - 13 October.
Monaco
Spain
Turkey