Why Creighton is back for more in Junior WRC

January 11, 2023 Rallyinsight

William Creighton and Liam Regan are heading back to the World Rally Championship in 2023 – focusing on Junior WRC for the third season in a row.

Junior WRC’s five-round series starts next month on the snow-covered stages of Rally Sweden. It will be Creighton’s first rally in M-Sport Poland’s Ford Fiesta Rally3 since Rally Greece last September.

He will have competed twice in a Hyundai i20 Rally2 since then. Creighton’s WRC 2 debut comes next weekend when he tackles Rally Monte-Carlo alongside Josh McErlean in a two-car Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy team.

Indeed, the Cote d’Azur drive was MI Rally Academy’s reward to Creighton after finishing as Rally Spain’s top non-priority crew in October.

Despite the recent Rally2 outings, Creighton and Regan will stick to their guns in Junior WRC.

“There are a couple of reasons why we decided to go back to the juniors,” explained the 25-year-old. “Even though it’s very much our desire to move into the Rally2 car, I still have more to learn in Rally3. Junior WRC is the best way to do that.

“The programme is professionally organised by M-Sport, it is a great way to promote yourself and your supporters. If you can get a good result in Junior WRC, it offers a brilliant chance to springboard into the next level of WRC.

“A year in WRC 2 takes a lot of money. There is quite a big difference between doing a junior programme and WRC 2 so that definitely came into it as well.”

The Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy will have two drivers in Junior WRC this year. Last Friday, Eamonn Kelly revealed his plans to take on Junior WRC in 2023.

Creighton’s two years of Junior WRC experience is in stark contrast to Kelly’s CV. Donegal’s 2022 Billy Coleman Award winner has never competed outside the UK or Ireland before his ground-breaking season.

It is a reminder of how Creighton has developed in his two years sampling WRC events. Two Junior WRC podiums in 2022 were proof of this progress.

“I feel a huge difference going into our third year. Liam and I have picked up a lot over the past two years about how world rallies work.

“We understand how to get the most out of the rallies and the whole Junior WRC set-up. In general, I’ve seen a huge improvement in how we can compete at a world level.

“But there is still a lot more to go.

“We are putting everything that we have learned, right back to the Junior 1000 days, towards trying to get some good results.”

Perhaps the only downside to Creighton’s return to Junior WRC is the added pressure of starting the multi-surface series as one of its most experienced competitors. But then again, what avenue of motorsport doesn’t have a level of pressure associated with it?

Either way, I don’t think it will be an issue for Ulster’s 2021 Junior British Rally Champion.

“Of course, there is pressure with all the events, whether it’s Monte-Carlo or Junior WRC. It wouldn’t be right if there wasn’t any pressure.

“That’s what gets my adrenaline going and gets me excited. It’s important that I deal with it in the right way and that’s what we learn at the academy, ways to help with that.”

The 2023 World Rally Championship starts with Rally Monte-Carlo on Thursday 19 January. Creighton and McErlean will drive two PCRS Rally2 i20s on the famous opener.

Three weeks later, Creighton and Regan start their Junior WRC campaign on Rally Sweden where they finished third last year.

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