YOUNG Welsh rally star Ioan Lloyd will head to Ireland next weekend to contest round four of the Stellantis Motorsport Rally Cup on the famous Donegal Rally on 21-23 June.

The 21-year old from Llandysul currently tops the points after three rounds of the prestigious championship for identical Peugeot 208 Rally4s and Lloyd knows that he will face a fierce challenge from a gaggle of very quick young Irish drivers.

The three-day Donegal Rally is one of the longest and toughest events on the calendar and forms round four of the Stellantis eight-event season.

Lloyd has already won twice in Ireland this year from the opening three rounds of the high-profile series and currently heads the standings by nine points but says that Donegal will be a very big challenge against the Irish drivers.

Lloyd said: “It's one of my favourite events for the year and it is a massive rally.”

Lloyd heads to Donegal with limited prior experience of the very popular rally, having only tackled the event once before. Regular co-driver Sion Williams will be back alongside Ioan after missing the recent Jim Clark Rally due to a clashing commitment.

“We really only did the Friday stages in Donegal last year because we went off on Saturday morning. I haven't done the stages on Friday this year because the route goes up towards Malin Head, which will be very close to Kyle McBride's home territory. No doubt he'll be strong, but they'll all be fast,” said Lloyd of his key rivals. “We'll try our best to get in amongst them.”

After the Donegal event, the remaining four Stellantis rounds include three UK events, starting with the gravel of the Grampian Rally in Scotland on 9 August, which is also the next round 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.

For the Donegal Rally, Ioan welcomes U Value Sips as a weekend partner for the rally.