Creighton resumes his WRC2 campaign in Latvia
Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy driver William Creighton is all set to resume his FIA World Rally Championship campaign this weekend, as he tackles the Tet Rally Latvia [18-21 July].
With three, back-to-back fast gravel events in the WRC roster, Creighton picks up his WRC2 season on the second of those after skipping Rally Poland and is now set to embark on his first event of that nature in the M-Sport Ford Fiesta Rally2.
His last WRC outing in Sardina saw slower and more technical stages than the upcoming offering in Latvia but Creighton was buoyed by his pace during the rocky and dusty weekend on the Italian island. Now, after a short break, Creighton and co-driver Liam Regan will be launched into an entirely different proposition altogether.
“This is most certainly a change of pace in WRC events; Sardinia and Latvia probably couldn’t be more different” says Creighton.
“This will be my first high-speed gravel rally in the Fiesta and any Rally2 car so it’s exciting to get behind the wheel and sample that. It’s a new event for me and of course, the WRC so it’s nice to be part of the buzz of a new rally in the calendar.”
Dovetailing WRC2 and British Rally Championship campaigns, Creighton elected to miss Poland and concentrate on Latvia after a busy start to the year in both series.
“We are one fast rally round down compared to the others in the WRC, but I have learned a lot about the car in the first half of the season with the testing and the events outside the WRC such as the BRC” he says.
“That has led to us making some improvements with both my driving and the set-up of the car to suit me and hopefully we can put that to good use in Latvia. But the profile of those roads is unique and it’s going to take some time to get used to the nature of them and get up to speed, but the stages look great and I`m looking forward to it.”
With no previous experience in Latvia, Creighton has been working with the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy on what to expect this weekend from the event.
“We have worked hard on the prep for this event and have been looking back at previous years when it was part of the ERC and researching drivers’ comments and in-cars to get an understanding of what we can expect.
“I feel quite relaxed going into this one and I’ll really enjoy the challenge that these high-speed gravel roads will present.”
Tet Rally Latvia gets underway on Thursday with a fan-friendly super special stage before the longest leg of the rally on Friday with seven stages and 132 kilometres in store. Saturday houses eight tests before the traditional four-stage blast to round out the rally on Sunday.
You can follow William’s progress throughout his career by following him on his social media channels: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok
