If you know his background, Kris Meeke's rally success isn't really surprising. Justin Hynes talks to the Dungannon driver
There's almost an air of destiny about Kris Meeke. Two weeks ago the young Dungannon rally driver powered his Citroën C2 to a Junior World Rally Championship win for his first win in the series and his team's first junior prize.
It wasn't totally unexpected. After all it's in his blood. His father, Sid Meeke, is something of a rallying legend - he prepared cars for a host of great drivers from the 1970s right up to five years ago. Bertie Fisher and Billy Coleman, among others, passed through the doors of Meeke's Dungannon business.
At first Kris was unmoved by their exploits, preferring the nuts and bolts of the sport to the glamour of behind the wheel competition. He went to Queen's University, got his degree in mechanical engineering and landed himself a job as a design engineer with the Ford WRC programme. Rallying is, after all, in the blood.
Then came the moment that may yet prove the major turning point in his life. "I was 21," he recalls. "I'd never sat in a rally car until then. And I was just flicking through a copy of Motorsport News and I saw this ad. - it was a competition run in conjunction with Peugeot for aspiring drivers, the prize being a run in a small local rally in Wales. I just decided to have a crack at it."
He was one of 350 who applied for the chance. But he was quicker than all of them and landed the prize. And in this maiden event he pushed to a class win, four minutes clear of his nearest rival. The bug bit.
"I raised sponsorship here in Ireland, competed in Britain and did okay," he says. "Then I entered for a rally in Scotland, a four-wheel driver super, the first time I'd ever driven something like that. That's where I met Colin."
That would be former WRC and now sometime Le Mans and Paris-Dakar driver Colin McRae. The Scot liked what he saw, and asked Meeke to take part in a test.
"There were three or four other guys there but I managed to get through," says Meeke matter-of-factly.
Since then the McRae family has mentored Kris through a host of championship wins, including a British Super 1600 title in 2003, to his current position - driving for Citroën in the JWRC championship, the series that launched Sebastien Loeb, current world champion and Meeke's senior team running mate, on an unsuspecting world.
"It's a great relationship," says Meeke. "Initially he just wanted to help out but it's developed from there, beyond a purely commercial deal. We're mates. I've lived at Colin's house for about eight months and I go training with him and he helps a lot. The advice and support he's given me has been invaluable. I owe Colin a lot for giving me the opportunity."
And the former champion's investment is beginning to pay dividends.
"I'd done some stuff with Opel in the JWRC in 2003 but then in 2004 I missed out on a drive with Renault. So I went back to Opel but there was no support there and it was pretty difficult. I set a lot of fastest times but there were a lot of problems, things kept going wrong and I never managed to get it all together.
"But then at the last rally of the season, the Catalunya, I got a chance with Citroën in the C2 and got it up to third overall but then I got a puncture and that was that really."
Citroën had seen enough to know that they wanted Meeke involved this year and it hasn't taken long for them to be proved right. "It was fantastic," he says of his recent Monte Carlo win. "Everything just came together. It was the first win at that level for me and the first win for the Citroën C2 and, what with Sebastien winning as well, a Citroën double was just fantastic."
Loeb too was impressed with his junior team-mate's performance. "It's great to see him come to Monte Carlo and win in the C2," said the WRC title-holder. "This is a very specific rally, one of the trickiest on the championship calendar. So he must be a very good driver and have had good (pace) notes to do it."
Citroën too was enthused by the Ulsterman's win, so much so that it immediately upped its support, offering Meeke a test run in the works Xsara driven by Loeb and team-mate Francois Duval.
"I'm very hopeful that will happen," says Meeke. "It's being talked about all right and it would be great to get a feel for that kind of machinery. There's nothing like getting mileage under your belt."
Indeed, he believes that a test in the Xsara may show that he is now ready to compete at senior level. "I certainly think I can do it," he says. "I'm looking to attract some more sponsorship and there's a possibility of maybe running a third Citroën (WRC) car at some events, so you never know."
Until then he will keep his eyes firmly focused on the junior championship. The WRC teams this week travel to Uddeholm near the Arctic Circle for the coming weekend's Swedish Rally. With the junior series only having eight rounds compared with the senior title's 17 events, Meeke won't be competing this time and will also sit out the following event in Mexico. But he will travel to both anyway.
"I want to go and keep an eye on things," he says. "I'll do the recce in Sweden - it's just good experience to do that, to learn the stages. And I hope I can get to Mexico too and do the same."
The next time Meeke will compete will be in the Rally of Italy in Sardinia in April. Until then it's a case of looking and learning, shuttling between Colin McRae's house and his family in Dungannon.
Back to the source. "It's funny," he says. "I do think it's in the blood a bit. There's definitely something in the genes. I've been around rally cars all my life. My dad was Northern Ireland rally champion back in 1971 but he couldn't take it any further. I've been able to go further, exploit whatever was there. But I think there's a lot further to go yet."