Kris Meeke may have been making headlines in 2024, but he’s not the only Northern Irishman enjoying a Portuguese comeback.
Former Killarney Rally of the Lakes winner James Leckey is making his own rallying return and Portugal is helping rekindle his love of the sport – thanks in part to some gentle persuasion from Meeke.
It’s been some time since Leckey competed regularly. A long time, in fact. Aside from a single outing in 2007, it had been 25 years since the Ulsterman last drove a rally car in anger.
Starting over in a rented Ford Fiesta R5 in 2023, Leckey did a few events in Ireland. How did that go? “I was really annoyed with how slow I was…”
That prompted the purchase of a new car. And a more serious attempt.
Leckey started 2024 competing on the snow of Arctic Lapland Rally and Rally Sweden
That car was a Citroën C3 Rally2 and, following a chat with co-driver Stephen McAuley, Leckey found himself at Arctic Lapland Rally in February. That was followed by an outing at Rally Sweden. Leckey admits the speed was missing, mainly because the events were so specialized. That didn’t matter. He was having fun and learning about the C3.
After that, it was back to Ireland… until Meeke pointed Portugal out.
“Have you seen the weather in Ireland recently?” asked Leckey. “We did Sligo last year, we did the Down Rally, it was just pouring rain. Kris [Meeke] said: “Come on out to Portugal, it’s good fun and it’ll set you up if you do the WRC round [in Portugal]. So we did. It’s wonderful.”
Leckey, who has done three rounds of the Portuguese Championship since then, has driven some impressive machinery over the years, including an ex-Bertie Fisher Subaru Legacy, and a Group A Impreza 555 that took him to his Rally of the Lakes win in 1998. So how does a modern Rally2 car compare?
“Anything I employ that was instinctive or intuitive from the Subaru days gets me into trouble in this thing” he smiled. “They’re just totally different. The Rally2 car, you turn in, you can brake a lot later, you know, they’re just fantastic.”
Rally Portugal turned out to be a fairly dramatic affair, with a crash on the second run through Mortágua on Friday. He said: “We hit a tree and spun, but we managed to get going again. Then we came over a jump a bit too quick, went into a bank and that put us out.”
Following some overnight repairs, he and co-driver Stephen McAuley were back out for Saturday’s stages and, despite another moment, made it to the end of the rally. Leckey’s only frustration was not being able to attack Fafe at full-speed, after the stage was cancelled for cars running further down the order.
He took it all in good spirits though: “My claim to fame is we went one kilometre an hour over the Fafe jump – we hold the record for the slowest over the Fafe jump!”
So, is a Portuguese rallying renaissance on the cards for the former Irish Tarmac Championship regular?
“Oh yeah,” he said, “I love it here. The guys are talking us into doing Madeira as well, they say it’s fabulous. And I love the Portuguese people.”
