William Creighton impresses during World Rally Championship WRC2 debut at Rally Sweden

The Junior World Rally champion set a string of confidence-boosting times as he made his Rally2 debut.

Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy Creighton kicked off his 2024 WRC2 assault at the specialised snow-covered event – his prize for winning last year's FIA Junior World Rally Championship title.

Creighton was behind the wheel of an M-Sport Ford Fiesta Rally2 in his first competitive outing in the car.

The Moira man and co-driver Liam Regan competed against an abundance of experienced Scandinavian drivers who were much more familiar with the specialised surface.

However, they held their own and come away with a positive finish and a string of impressive stage times on their first WRC event of the season.

“I’m delighted to get to the end of this one,” said Creighton at the finish.

“It's always a joy to drive in these conditions [snow events] and this experience has been no different. It’s another level but I can be really pleased with our performance during the weekend considering the calibre of the drivers we were up against. It’s a good start to our season.”

The Swedish stages were blessed with almost perfect conditions during rally week, offering large qualities of falling snow coupled with overnight temperatures down to around -11C to create a picture postcard event for the crews.

The Super Special stage took place in darkness through the event’s Red Barn Arena and a safe run allowed Creighton to focus on Friday’s first full day.

With conditions catching out even the best drivers in the world, Creighton elected to play the long game and was inside the top 12 before two punctures on the longest stage of the day dropped him down the order.

Saturday continued to provide challenging conditions for the crews, with the thick and often solid snowbanks ready to swallow any car that strayed just a few inches offline. Precision was key and Creighton struggled to find a rhythm.

A spin in the morning and a stall at a junction in the afternoon were an indication of the tricky stages, but Creighton was “much happier” with his driving and he set a handful of top 10 WRC2 times.

Three stages made up the final day on Sunday, with a double run through a 25-kilometre test plus a final blast over the Super Special stage. A clean run through all three ensured Creighton claimed his first finish of the season.

“I definitely think we made the most out of the weekend,” he said.

“It's such a tough rally to master and when you only drive on snow once or twice a year it's almost impossible to come here and be in the hunt for top results. But we knew that from the outset, and we had a game plan to do our own thing and take every little bit of experience and knowledge away from the rally that we could, and from that point of view, it was a great weekend.

“The M-Sport Fiesta is a sensational car too and it's been such a great feeling to blast the car through the snowbanks at some crazy angles.

"When we got it hooked up, the times were really encouraging so I`m eager to see what the remainder of the season holds for us.

"A huge thanks must go to everyone on the stages with the Irish flags cheering us on, to the M-Sport team for a great car and of course to the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy for their unwavering support. On to the next one.”

Creighton is set to unveil his future event plans in the coming weeks.