Conor Mohan began his Junior World Rally Championship (JWRC) campaign in Sweden last weekend. Conor along with his Co. Donegal driver, Eamonn Kelly have entered the 2025 JWRC, a championship that began in Umeå (Sweden) and finishes five rounds later with the Central European Rally in October. Their Swedish event began with a 3.44km shakedown stage on Thursday, where the pair used their previous experience on snow and ice, to set the 2nd fastest stage time, just 1.6s in arrears of the fastest time. The competitive aspect of the event began that night with the opening Special Stage (SS), SS1, Umeå Sprint 1. This 5.16km stage finished at the famous Red Barn Arena. This Red Barn Arena would be used a further three times over the event as all of SS1,8,15 and 18 would finish on the Arena. On the opening stage, Eamonn and Conor finished third fastest, just 1.8s down on fastest and 0.2s down on second fastest. On SS2, Bygdsiljum 1, they finished fifth fastest, dropping them two places to 5th overall with Eamonn commenting that he was just far too cautious. On SS3 Andersvattnet 1, they finished ninth fastest which dropped them to 6th overall. On SS4, Bäck 1, just before midday service, they finished 6th fastest but were considerably faster than those coming behind. With the car checked over in service it was a repeated pass of each of the four earlier stages. On SS5 Bygdsiljum 2, they finished the 28.27km fifth fastest, this result was enough to move the up one place overall to 4th. On SS6 Andersvattnet 2, they finished fourth fastest, just 0.2s down on third. On SS7, Bäck 2, they finished in sixth, but still held onto 4th overall despite a spin which forced them to reverse. SS8 was a repeated run over the Umeå Sprint, and here Eamonn and Conor finished second fastest, less than half a second slower than fastest. The performance on this special stage was enough to promote them into 3rd position overall during the overnight halt. The 15.65km of SS9 Vännäs 1, began Saturdays rallying and Eamonn and Conor finished the stage in fifth fastest after having another spin which cost them a handful of seconds. On SS10 Sarjöliden 1, they set yet another second fastest stage time. Another second fastest stage time was the result of SS11 Kolksele 1. This second fastest stage time resulted in them moving into 2nd place overall at midday service. The afternoon stages were a repeated pass of the earlier stages, plus another run over the Umeå Sprint special stage. By the end of the days final special stage, SS15 Umeå Sprint 3, Conor and Eamon had dropped back to 3rd place overall after they were unable to keep the hard charging local guy, Mille Johansson behind them.
Just three special stages were on the cards on Sunday, beginning with SS16 Västervik 1. On SS16, Conor and Eamonn again finished the stage second fastest. A fourth and seventh fastest stage time on the final two stages were enough for Eamonn and Conor to come away from the opening round of the 2025 JWRC with a 3rd place finish and a healthy number of points on the board heading into Portugal for Round 2 in May. Interestingly, during a long road section between two stages, Conor, quipped to Eamonn, “Do you know ‘icy’ is the easiest English word to spell?”. After taking a moment to study it, Eamonn, replied, “Yes, I See Why”.
