Winning last year’s Open 2WD championship was never really the plan. Getting back into a four-wheel-drive car, however, was.
Ryan Booth used to be a regular in the RC2 division – steering a McKenna Motorsports Ford Fiesta Rally2 and latterly a Škoda Fabia to strong results.
But after a year out in 2022, Booth re-emerged in the two-wheel-drive ranks as the start of a new venture running his own team.
“It was always the goal to get back into a four-wheel-drive car when we started Standard Motorsports back in 2023,” he tells DirtFish. “I had purchased the Escort as it is an extremely simple platform yet quite fast and competitive.
“We wanted to keep things simple as it relates to the car so we could work on all the other moving parts of running a new team.
“After two seasons (albeit we only ran a handful of events in the first season) in the Escort, I felt we were ready to take the next step back into four-wheel-drive, all while adding a rental Fiesta Rally3 to the Standard Motorsports program.”
Booth is quite literally mixing business with pleasure this year – thinking about his team as well as his own campaign.
While he naturally has an interest in the business side, there’ll be plenty of attention on him as he brings the first Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 to the US.
“The goals for the year are to run both cars at all the National events and to start getting some representation at the Regional level,” Booth says. “We have a good amount of diverse, really fun Regional rallies that we usually don’t make due to the tight National schedule, so hitting a few of those is at the top of the list as well.”
But what about the Škoda? What are his early impressions?
“It’s a pleasure to drive – unreal how capable it is,” Booth smiles. “It will be a while until we can really push it to its capabilities.
“We did about 50 miles of testing but it’s one thing to drive it to its limit on a road you know and another to do it on stage.”
Booth's Fabia is one of four Rally2 cars entered into the 100 Acre Wood Rally
Booth’s debut will be at this weekend’s 100 Acre Wood Rally, where he’ll take on Hyundai pair Patrick Gruszka and RC2 newbie Alastair Scully, as well as the Ford Fiesta Rally2 of Javier Olivares, in his class.
The entry is headed by Subaru’s three-time champion Brandon Semenuk, who’ll be chased by Conner Martell.
Four Rally3 cars will take the start, with Nick Allen, Liam McNelis (in the Standard Motorsports car) and Madelyn Tabor all in Fiestas taking on Sean Donnelly’s Renault Clio.
And in Open 2WD, series regulars Seamus Burke (Ford Escort Mk2) and Matthew Nykanen (BMW 328i) will measure themselves up against Junior European Rally Championship contender Calle Carlberg, who brings a Peugeot 208 Rally4 to the party.
You can follow all of the action as it unfolds across DirtFish’s social media channels (@dirtfishrally).
