Gus Greensmith is fully focused on trying to win this year’s WRC2 title rather than actively securing a Rally1 return.
Greensmith elected to join Toksport Škoda in WRC2 this year after three full seasons with M-Sport Ford in top-line World Rally Championship machinery.
So far he has won two events (México and Portugal) and was second on Acropolis Rally Greece earlier this month, but crashes in Sardinia – where he wasn’t scoring points but left him recovering from a back injury – and Finland have weakened his championship hand.
His obvious target is to work his way back into a Rally1 seat, but Greensmith isn’t concentrating on that and instead pouring all his energy into winning WRC2 – which could well prove vital to securing a Rally1 drive anyway.
“At the moment I’m not necessarily thinking of that,” Greensmith told DirtFish if there was a route back into Rally1.
“My priority this year has been the championship. We’re still in the fight for it. I’ll leave that to my dad and them lot, they sort all that out.”
As for this weekend’s Rally Chile, Greensmith did compete there back in 2019 and finished third in WRC2 Pro in a Ford Fiesta R5.
But he joked that “I’ll learn more from my friends that live in Chile than I will from my past experience” as the overwhelming majority of this year’s stages are new.
With 12 points less than Citroën-mounted Yohan Rossel and 28 less than team-mate Andreas Mikkelsen, who have both also done five events from a possible seven, Greensmith is perhaps the outsider in the title race and could really do with a win in Chile to strengthen his bid.
“It seems now that it’s down to just a three-way fight for the championship,” Greensmith said.
“Obviously Andreas is in the strongest position and then me and Yohan are still pretty close behind.
“Still two more rounds to go so it’s still not done yet.”
