Jonathan Greer will make his first appearance in the Probite British Rally Championship since 2019 next weekend, as the five-time Northern Ireland Rally champion is set to contest the Voyonic Grampian Forest Rally.
The Citroen C3 Rally2 ace has spent much of the past five years concentrating on sealed surface events at home, with campaigns in Northern Ireland and the Irish Tarmac Rally Championship.
After wrapping up his fifth NI rally title with a round to spare, Greer has recently switched to gravel in search of a new challenge in the Citroen, contesting the recent Kielder and Scottish rallies with impressive results, taking the runner-up spots on both occasions.
Now, Greer and co-driver Niall Burns will return to the BRC1 category for the Banchory-based event, going head-to-head with the likes of Chris Ingram and William Creighton. Greer finished third in the BRC standings in 2011 in a Skoda Fabia S2000 and again in 2016 in a DS3 R5, with a rich pedigree in the championship that stems back to the Group N and two-wheel-drive era of the series.
This time though, there will be no pressure of a championship as he heads into the Scottish forests.
“It’s been nice to do some other this year and with the Northern Ireland Rally Championship secured in May, it’s opened up the opportunity to try events I`ve been looking to do for a while” says the Northern Irishman.
“We had a few zero scores in the Irish Tarmac Championship which put us out of contention so fancied a change, and as I`d wanted to try gravel again, we headed over to Kielder to see what the C3 was like on gravel, and I really enjoyed it. I was a little surprised at our pace initially as it took a bit of getting used to but second was a good result for us there”.
Taking each rally as it comes, Greer then headed for the Scottish which brought an equally fruitful result and after his gravel success so far in 2024, the Grampian was next on the list.
“The Scottish was similar in that it initially felt a little slow but when we looked at the times, they were very respectable. The day evolved and to take second against David Bogie on home soil is very pleasing.
“We have been taking it rally by rally so the Grampian seemed like a great option. Returning to the BRC is also nice as we get to do recce and I`m looking forward to getting back amongst the series again. It’s been a while for us and the BRC pace at the moment is next level. The hope is not to get too blown away by the others and have a bit of fun.”
Image courtesy of Citroen Racing UK/Ireland
