IOAN Lloyd will renew his bid for the Stellantis Motorsport Rally Cup when the second half of the championship schedule starts on this weekend's Voyonic Grampian Forest Rally in northern Scotland.

Rising Welsh rally star Lloyd from Llandysul and his co-driver Sion Williams will take their Peugeot 208 Rally4 to the Scottish event on Friday and Saturday, aiming to get their title bid back on track after a major fire sidelined them from round four, the Donegal International Rally in June.

The Stellantis Cup is highlighting the best young talent in the UK and Ireland, competing in identical Rally4 cars and Lloyd has been one of the absolute pacesetters to date, with two victories from four events.

However, two non-finishes mean that he heads to Scotland third in the standings behind rivals Keelan Grogan and Kyle McBride and Lloyd knows that a strong result in the Scottish forests is vital for his 2024 championship bid.

“I'm excited to be getting back into the rally car,” said Lloyd. “It's been a while since we've been on gravel as well, and we need four strong results from the second half of the season.

“The championship is definitely all to play for. The last time we rallied on gravel, back in April, we had decent pace, so we hope to continue that.”

Lloyd contested the Grampian Rally in 2022 and despite an early fuel pump issue, gained valuable experience of the forest stages in the Aberdeen region.

“The Grampian is a good event and the stages are fast and flowing, but probably there's more loose gravel than we're used to. It's a long trip north for us, about 10 hours in the car. We do the recce on Friday as well as the first two stages on Friday evening, so Friday will be a long, tough day.”

With another 45 stage miles on Saturday, Ioan will be bidding the claim his third win of the season on the rally that is also round four of the Probite British Rally Championship.

Ioan Lloyd is proud to be supported by David Byrne Auto Repairs, West Wales Rally Spares, Huw Jeffreys and Sons Plumbing and Heating Engineers, Mark Jukes Containers, Abba Tree Specialist, Motordrive Seats, Towy Electrical Ltd, Panta Racing Fuel, Atech Racing, Bleddyn Thomas Haulage Contractors, Garej Tyn y Pistyll, ABC Autosport Bearings and Components, Freemans Bodyshop, Monit Motorsport, Solid Designs, Neil Spain, Mintex, 2300 Club John Easson Award, Kielder WT, Gareth Owens Building Contractor, Moduron Teifi Motors, Safety Devices International Ltd, TRS Safety Equipment, Pro Dent, Gomer Press, Rick’s Body Shop, Wyn Thomas Heating, Towy Works and On The Pacenote.