WRC champ Kalle Rovanpera to make Irish debut at the Killarney Historic Rally

This Saturday's Killarney Historic Rally will kick off the 2025 NAPA Auto Parts Irish Tarmac Rally Championship (ITRC) and is also round one of the Wales Motorsport Fabrication Historic series.

Two-time World Rally champions Kalle Rovanpera and Jonne Halttunen are tackling the famous Moll's Gap, Ballaghbeama, Caragh Lake, and Kilcummin stages in the rally’s modified category.

Rovanpera will drive Jason Black’s Toyota Starlet over the eight-stage event, the biggest Historic Rally in Europe and his list of challengers include top seed and previous winner of the category Robert Duggan, along with former ITRC modified champion Kevin Eves as well as Conor Murphy, Declan Gallagher, and Colin O’Donoghue.

Indeed the Finn is in the news this week as Rovanpera will return to the World Rally Championship (WRC) full-time next season with Toyota. He only competed in seven rallies this year after lifting the WRC title in 2022 and 2023, winning four events in 2024.

Frenchman Sebastien Ogier, the eight-time world champion, will continue racing for Toyota on a part-time basis and the 2025 season gets under way in Monte Carlo on 23 January, with Belgium's Thierry Neuville the new champion.

Speaking ahead of this weekend, Rovanpera said of Black’s car: "I saw some videos, it looks really nice and quick as well – something like 380bhp. I think that’s enough."

The rally will also serve as a special moment for Killarney’s own Paul Nagle (below), a former World Rally-winning co-driver and one time navigator to the late Craig Breen, who emphasised the significance of having Rovanpera at the event: "It’s huge," Nagle said.

"Killarney is always one of the biggest days on the Irish rallying calendar, and it just got bigger. To see Kalle Rovanpera going