Brady sets sights on £60,000 JWRC prize

Photo shows, Brian Brady with rally legend Ari Vatanen at last year's Rally Finland.

Brian Brady has his eyes on a major prize as he prepares for the first round of the British Rally Championship this weekend – a £60,000 Junior World Rally Championship JWRC package.

The 24-year-old is well positioned to take on the best of the other junior drivers as he has already won the Motorsport Ireland Junior Rally Series, and when he competes abroad for the first time on Saturday, February 8, on the Cambrian Rally, he knows he will have to be at his best.

A Billy Coleman Award nominee last year, the Oldcastle man is starting the season in a hired car and will continue in a 2020 Ford Fiesta R2T prepared by C-Sport in Galway.

"Hopefully it’s all going to work out well," Brian told the Westmeath Examiner last week. "There are six rounds and five out of the six count; four on tar and two on gravel.

"I’m hoping for good results on the tar rounds as I’m more comfortable on that surface. Cambrian and Galloway Hills are gravel, so that’s the first and last rounds, and we’d hope we won’t be going to the last round depending on a good result."

Brian is aiming for a podium finish this weekend in Wales, "which would set us up nicely, and hopefully we can get a good result in West Cork, the second round".

"I’m hiring a car from a crowd in England, EDSL, for the first round, and C-Sport in Galway are going to lease a car to us for the remainder of the year – it’s a new car and that’s why it’s not ready for the first round."

Brian’s co-driver for the season is Eamonn Creedon from Cork, part of the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy for 2020. Brian is also part of the academy as a nominee for the Billy Coleman Award in 2019, and he is looking forward to working with Creedon.

"I find my driving is consistent enough, so it’s trying to find the last few seconds everywhere we can, and the academy is going to help out there – we will take it seriously as far as we can!"

The BRC calendar for 2020 is: 8 February, Visit Conwy Cambrian Rally, Llandudno, Wales; 14/15 March, Clonakilty Park West Cork Rally; 25/26 April, Corbeau Seats Rally Tendring & Clacton, Clacton-on-Sea, England; 25-27 June, Renties Ypres Rally, Belgium; 21/22 August, Today’s Ulster Rally; 19 September, Armstrong Galloway Hills Rally, Castle Douglas, Scotland.