Deflating weekend for Mohan in Finland

Conor Mohan and Eamonn Kelly were competing in Secto Rally Finland last weekend, which was the latest round of the Junior World Rally Championship.

The 306 km gravel surface event began Thursday evening with the 3.48km super special stage Harju 1, where Eamonn and Conor missed out on the stage win by just 0.6 seconds.

Friday morning was to be the first full day of rallying but unfortunately for the two lads, special stage two and three were both cancelled for the Juniors. Their event restarted on SS4, but a torrential downpour came which caused Conor and Eamonn to slow down considerably as they had very poor visibility and confidence to drive hard over the 15.51km stage.

Midday service took place after SS5 and at the service the men were sitting 9^th overall (OA), 43.8s down on 1^st, a majority of that 43.8s deficit caused by the heavy downpour on SS4.

On SS6 they were denied a stage win by suffering a slow puncture. Despite the puncture, their turn of pace jumped them four places and they now sat in 5^th OA, 34s down on 1^st. They went one better on SS7, setting the third fastest stage time, which moved up to 4^th place OA. A second fastest stage time on SS8 reduced their deficit to 1^st to 27s. Friday’s stages ended after SS10 and Conor and Eamonn still held 4^th OA overnight with a further six stages ahead on Saturday and four on Sunday. Eamonn said at the end of the Friday “The day started badly but ended really well, with a brace of top three stage times we hold 4^th overnight. Big thanks to Conor Mohan for keeping the show on the road”.

On SS12 Saturday morning they moved up to 3^rd place OA, just 19.9s off 1st at this stage, pun intended…

One of the most legendary special stages in the world was up next, the 33km stage of Ouninpohja, ran in its full length for the first time since 2017. At the end of this stage, they moved up to 2^nd OA, just 8.5s down on 1^st, heading into mid-day service. There was a blow for the team on SS15 when they picked up a puncture not long after the stage start and with the stage being over 20km in length they had no option but to stop and change it. This stoppage caused them to drop to 7^th OA. They did climb to 6^th OA on the following stage before service and the overnight halt. Despite Saturday’s puncture the team spirit wasn’t deflated, again pun intended, so they kept battling on and finished the opening stage on Sunday, 3^rd fastest. They along with the rest of the Junior field were slowed near the end of the penultimate stage so the Juniors were given a nominal stage time based on their speed up until the issue. Conor and Eamonn were given the 3^rd fastest Junior stage time.

The puncture on Saturday cost them two and a half minutes so with only one stage remaining, sitting in 6^th place OA, 2m 27s in arrears of 1^st, and 21.2s off 5^th, Conor and Eamonn took no risks on the final stage and took the car home in 6^th OA. On a positive note, they finished ahead of the brainiest person in South Africa as Max Smart took his car home in 11^th OA. (word play intended).

The final round of the Junior World Rally Championship is the EKO Acropolis Rally Greece, which takes place between the 5^th and 8^th of September. Conor and Eamonn currently sit 9^th in the Championship after mechanical issues with their car cost them good results on two of the four rounds held so far.