The Castrol MEM Rally Team heads to the first forestry round of the 2025 Probite British Rally Championship this weekend for the Carlisle Stages (Saturday 12 April) aiming to continue its BRC Teams’ battle – while William Creighton will be looking to strengthen his position at the top of the BRC Drivers’ points table and stable-mate Meirion Evans will be targeting a first win on gravel after just missing out on victory on a recent test event.
Having won the opening East Riding Stages on the closed asphalt road stages in Yorkshire, William will contest his first loose-surface rally in his Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 – and has been seeded at car number one.
Co-driven by Liam Regan, the 26-year old Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy supported driver is no stranger to gravel rallying, having finished second on the Visit Conway Cambrian Rally for example, which secured him the runners-up spot in last year’s BRC title race.
William hasn’t rallied in the famous Kielder Forest complex since 2019, when he contested the Pirelli International Rally in a Peugeot 208 R2 – finishing runner-up in the Junior BRC category. Heading there now in a powerful Michelin-shod four-wheel drive state-of-the-art Rally2 will be very different, and he’ll be aiming to exploit all that extra speed and traction that will now be at his disposal.
Meirion has been growing in confidence and pace on gravel events and would have won the recent Malcolm Wilson Rally, which he contested as a test outing, had it not been for a puncture near the end of the event which dropped him down to second.
The 29-year old Carmarthenshire driver is better known for his exploits on asphalt rallies and despite feeling unwell all event Meirion and new co-driver Dale Furniss finished a strong fourth on the opening East Riding Stages – just missing out on a podium result by 6.5 seconds.
Meirion hasn’t rallied in Kielder Forest complex since 2017, when he also contested the Pirelli International Rally in a Peugeot 208 R2 – finishing third in the Junior BRC category, having led the category before a spin. This will be his sixth gravel rally in the Castrol Yaris Rally2, and only his second on Pirelli tyres.
In addition to the rally stages, the Castrol MEM Rally Team Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 was on display at the Castrol Service Conference at the Celtic Manor Resort near Newport in South Wales recently too – which also Meiron attended.
William Creighton said: “It’s nice to be heading into the second round of the BRC as championship leader, but it’s very early days and the rest of the guys will be trying just as hard as usual. We are planning to get a gravel test under our belts before the event and hopefully we can find a comfortable feeling to take us into the rally. With just fifty competitive miles it’s a bit of a sprint rather than a marathon so we will have to be quick out of the blocks but I’m looking forward to continuing to learn the Castrol Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 on gravel. Once again thanks to the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy and all our supporters for their continued support, it’s great to be fighting at the sharp end of the BRC once again this season.”
Meirion Evans said: “I’m really looking forward to the Carlisle Stages, not least because I haven’t rallied in Kielder Forest since 2017 and back then we had a really good run. We were leading the Junior BRC before we spun and lost about ten seconds and ultimately the class win. I’ve got good memories of Kielder and always enjoyed driving there. This will be my first time there in a Rally2 car and everything will be a lot faster, but they’re great roads with a really nice flow to them and where you can carry a lot of speed. We did the Malcolm Wilson Rally a few weeks ago as a test event and we would have won if it wasn’t for a puncture. As it was a BTRDA round we didn’t do a recce, but our speed on roads that I’d never seen before was extremely promising. Hopefully now on slightly more familiar terrain in Kielder we can keep on getting faster on gravel, build the speed and get a good result.”
The Carlisle Stages starts at 08:01 on Saturday (12 April) and has three stages (Ash Park, Kershope and Buck Fell 1, totalling 27.19 stage miles) before first service. At 12.75 miles, the longest stage of the event (SS4, Chirdonhead) follows, before a final service, a repeat of the Buck Fell stage and the finish at Kielder Castle at 14:25 after all five stages and 50.66 stage miles have been completed.
