Sierra Morena to kick off KMS Racing’s ERC season
KMS Racing kicks off their ERC season from Rally Sierra Morena in Spain. The team fields two M-Sport Ford Fiesta Rally3s for the tarmac event: number 36 for Ville Vatanen and number 39 for Craig Rahill.
Finnish M-Sport partner KMS Racing kicks off their European Rally Championship campaign this weekend at the season-opening tarmac event of Rally Sierra Morena in Cordoba, Spain. The teams fields two Ford Fiesta Rally3s in the ERC3 and M-Sport Fiesta Rally3 Trophy championship.
Driving with the team are two young talents, 22-year-old Irishman Craig Rahill and 19-year-old Finn Ville Vatanen.
Rahill begins his charge fresh from a podium finish at the JWRC event last weekend in Croatia. Supported by Motorsport Ireland and co-driver by Conor Smith, the ERC Junior Rookie of the Year is eagerly waiting to get into action at Sierra Morena.
- I’m delighted with our result in Croatia where our main goal was to be clean and tidy and finish. This weekend, we switch to Pirelli tires and different setup and hope to use our experience from here last year to get a good result and start our championship off on a high, Rahill said.
Uniting Ford with the surname Vatanen, the young Finn is a distant relative of multiple time WRC event winner Ari Vatanen. The gravel specialist has been busy in the winter and spring time practicing tarmac driving with Vittorio Caneva’s rally school, Vatanen and co-driver Joonas Ojala took a class victory at the Rallye La Llana last weekend in Spain in preparation.
- We got some good competitive kilometres from La Llana, and also got to see how much cutting there is from the cars in front. Our pre-event tests were also successful, and we got to try some new things with the car. The route looks exciting based on the recce, there’s a mix of more technical sections and some faster bits. I’m feeling confident going into the weekend, Vatanen said.
KMS Racing’s team principal Jussi Kumpumäki reflects on the weekend’s season opener as follows:
- I’m eager to get the rally going after a long off-season full of preparation for this moment. The pre-event tests were successful, and both our drivers have had a thorough preparations according to plan. I believe the competition between our drivers will be tough, and we hope to see both cars near the front, Kumpumäki said.
Rally Sierra Morena is held from 17th to 19th of April. The event consists of 13 special stages and 203,8 special stage kilometres. Vatanen will be running number 36 and Rahill number 39.
Photo: PG Racing
