The newest member of the WRC's Rally1 club: Shane Byrne

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Imagine this, you've just won your very first international rally in the European Rally Championship.

This is September 2025.

Little do you know that your career is about to take an even bigger upturn in just a matter

of months.

You show up to M Sports headquarters at the end of the year thinking you're there just

to celebrate the year you've had in Rally 2, but then you're told you're going to be

in the World Rally Championship in a Rally 1 car.

My guest today on Spin the Rally Pod was in that exact situation.

Shane Byrne, what a pleasure it is to have you with us today.

Thanks very much for your time.

Hey look, you're giving me goosebumps listening to that opener.

It's good to be on and I feel like a proper celebrity now being on dirtfish.

There it is.

That's it.

That's the sign that you've made it.

But do you know what's weird, is it?

Because I was reading that and for me it is literally a script, but it could be a script,

couldn't it?

But that's actually your life.

That is what happened in such a short space of time.

It's quite mental and we'll get into it in full, but it is quite mental how that's all

come to be for you.

Yeah, it's been like we're X amount of events now under the WRC this year, but like looking

back for the last two to three events of the URC and at the back of 2025 it was just, yeah,

just everything was going good and things move fast.

And as you say, the whole announcement for what 2026 would be for John and me, it was,

yeah, it was a crazy time and it was so exciting.

And we were actually the last two guys probably to know about it, which was all the better

because it left the excitement a lot more for us on the day.

So, yeah, it's still a good response, as I was saying, when you're listening back to that

because you're reliving that moment.

Yeah, it is quite mental and I have to say you're referencing obviously that announcement.

It's quite funny that I had a chat to Josh before it was all announced and he knew at

that point, obviously he didn't even tell me, he couldn't obviously, but not even like

off the record between us, he wouldn't tell me.

I tried to ask him, he wouldn't tell me and he insisted he didn't know.

So I think fair play to Josh and Owen for keeping that from you two.

That must have been quite difficult for them to keep a straight face.

I don't know what we were talking about that week or maybe we're planning something, but

like, Owen was saying to me, I was talking to Owen that on the week of M-Sport.

Oh, we're talking about, I don't know what it was now, it was like lift to the airport

and who was going with who and was there room in this car to go with such a person.

And after the announcement, Owen was like, he's just, I was trying to avoid your phone

calls all week because he's just, I was afraid to let it slip.

And he's like, so you still didn't know even on the lead up to it.

I think no, we hadn't a notion like, and he's like, yeah, we're finding it difficult

like to keep it from us because, you know, it could so easily slip out in a conversation,

but not kudos to Josh and Owen for keeping a secret.

Well played.

And obviously to you and John for doing the job to earn this chance, we're going to get

into all of that, of course, throughout this podcast, but I'd like to start, if I may,

with some kind of quickfire-ish questions to kind of get to know you a little bit better.

I don't know the answers to these either.

I'm sure most of the listeners won't.

It's not a test or a quiz or a pressure.

It's just purely to understand more about Shane Burns past and rallying, as it were.

But my very first question, quite simply, is what was your first car?

And that can be competition or non-competition up to you, or both?

A four door Nissan Micra.

Nice.

Okay.

What generate, is that the, what I would call the kit car generation Micra, or the one

after that with the more like, well, this was a road car, but it was 1999 was the year

of it.

Right.

Yeah.

So it's that.

Okay.

It's the cool one.

And no, no disrespect to my granny, but she had the one after and it wasn't the best car.

I drove the newer model also.

So yeah.

Can you call them cool?

I'm not sure.

It depends.

You've got to contextualize it, haven't you?

In the, in the context of a first car, mine, I'm just a couple years younger than you.

My first car was an 04 Fiesta, very basic, but it felt like the best thing in the world

at the time.

Cause it was freedom, wasn't it?

It's wheels.

So you're away.

But it was quite bad.

The front, the passenger, what's the phrase?

Well, passenger, what's the door?

The passenger seat wouldn't move forward.

It wouldn't recline.

So we had to get like a clothes peg to like make it work.

It was all very secondhand and it was shared with my brother, but it was the best car I've

had, even though it definitely wasn't the best.

You'll have to go and check now to see if you can buy that car back at some stage.

I know who's got it.

It was my dad's, this is going to get convoluted.

My dad's partner's brother who then gave it to his two children.

And I don't actually know them what happened to that.

That was a few years ago, but yeah, that could be a project down the line.

I could do a learning mechanics as well as maybe that's the move.

But do you remember your first competition car as well?

The first rally car you ever sat in?

Yes.

It was a Ford Escort, Mark II.

It's a guy that lives 25 minutes on the road from me.

It was on the St Angelo air track.

The May Day stages rally 2014.

So I can actually still remember.

I think we don't maybe five or six runs that day, but I can still remember.

Most of them runs we had quite a, we're using quite old tires that day.

And we come in a tree right.

What should be like a relatively fast note and Barry McGill's name, Barry's notes.

And it was just lock to lock.

We had a massive spin, you know.

So that was my first moment, if you want to call it, in rallying terms.

And I think we slid onto the grass a little bit, but being on an airfield,

you can't really do much damage, so everything is okay.

But no, I can still remember that.

And I had all the fancy rally gear and I bought everything from me first day out.

So no good memories.

It's amazing how that sticks to you, isn't it?

Like, I don't know how many rallies you've done in your career since,

but you probably didn't know at the time that that would stick with you for that long.

Obviously it's a big deal, isn't it?

You've waited so long to get that chance.

But yeah, I think it's funny how the brain latches onto these things.

He's like massive seminal moments in your head.

Yeah, because I haven't sat in many Mark II Escorts since, I think I've done.

I've done another track day and maybe a little bit of testing before,

but never actually done a rallying one, I don't think.

But no, they're an awesome machine.

Obviously, different types, different specs in the Escorts,

and like some of them are like a two-wheel drive WRC car, you know,

they have traction control and there's just absolutely rapid and straight line, like,

you know, serious, serious bit of engineering.

Yeah, the spaceships now aren't they?

The modified cars now, they're quite crazy.

But this all brings me on to my second question.

I was just, that wasn't very quick for I, was it?

This one is your first rallying experience.

So we've kind of touched on in the car, but do you remember the first time you were,

I guess, around rallying and realise maybe this is something that you wanted to do with your life?

Yeah, it's actually, so my dad and a couple of his mates had come out to spectate a rally in Portugal.

Never, probably were never, there were maybe one or two rallies in Ireland,

but never in any international, so that was their first trip away to experience what the WRC had to offer.

But two of the guys that was out there actually brought me to my first rally many, many years ago.

It was the Donegal International rally, so that would be my home rally.

Not sure what year it was.

I remember Gary Jennings was in the Evo 9 at the time.

I need the blue and white livery.

And I remember the Stoney stage, I can remember when that was at the midpoint in Nocala.

It's actually, I think I'm getting very geeky now, but I think it's midpoint radio 2, just up from that.

It's a herping race.

And yeah, so that's my first kind of like real memories from rallying,

and then I suppose maybe that had passed, and then I suppose when I was the age to start driving,

then 17 or 17 and a half, I think it got me a licence.

And then I started going to an odd rally because, you know, at home like if you're in the cars,

you'd be called a bit of a car head. That's our terminology on it.

So I had a white E36 M3.

So, you know, yeah, maybe a little bit of different in amongst going to the rally too.

But yeah, we're not been spectated at Donegal in 2012.

And yeah, I remember Gary Jennings again and another co-driver, Neil Doherty, had won it.

And that's when I probably really got an interest for rallying and very difficult to get started.

But I remember thinking at the time, Jesus, I would love to do this, you know,

whether it be actually had an ocean to drive back then, but I was a bit oblivious to the cost of driving also.

But yeah, probably 2012 when I properly first got into rallying, you know, as a spectator on this.

It's not part of my very quick sort of five questions here, but I want to touch on this now

because we're in the right point, I guess, of the conversation.

Because I'll be honest, I never really had that same dream, have the same experience.

I remember watching, actually, we're similar drivers to you.

My neck is the words that I bore people telling us, but it's the Jim Clark rally.

So that's this weekend for me, so that's my weekend sorted.

But I remember seeing all the Irish drivers come over and Andrew Nesbitt, these sorts of guys are all legends to me.

And you would sit and watch them and they would feel, I mean, these guys are mainly at that level, business people.

But they felt like superheroes.

How are these people doing this? And it was just the most incredible thing.

I never had the dream of doing it and it just felt so ridiculous that I just never even contemplated that it might be possible.

But how do you go about having that vision to try and get in the car and then making that happen?

Yeah, there's quite a few guys co-driving locally now down here, like where I'm from, South West and County Donegal.

And a little village called Brockless, don't blink or you'll miss it.

But there's two co-drivers local to me at the time and there was one or two drivers competing at the time also.

But no, to be honest with you, I didn't know how to get involved.

And I remember there was a fundraiser going on like that guy Barry McGill was involved in.

So he offered up a seat with himself for the media rally.

So it says to mum that I was going to get into the auction of the fundraiser that night and bid in it.

And for one reason or another, never went in.

So it worked out the next day, mum rang me at lunchtime and she says, we are chatting to dad today.

And I said, no.

And he says, well, she says he went in and he bought you the seats.

So I think it was maybe 250 or 280 or something.

So we'd contact with Barry.

We're not too far away from each other as to say, but we never met in person before.

And so just we got organized for that.

And that was my first introduction to rally.

And that's literally how I got my first seat was that was through like a charity auction, a fundraiser.

And that's crazy.

Yeah.

In a good way.

Yeah.

But if that didn't happen, I generally don't know if I'd ever got involved in it because it was, as I say, there wasn't too many co-drivers.

There wasn't too many you could approach, you know, one.

But yeah, for forgetting my actual first seat then for like, you know, stage rallying, closed road rallying.

It was just through a fella in Donegal town.

His name is Liam McIntyre.

Liam has like, I think maybe close to 200 rallies done.

Probably had a hundred rallies on at the time.

So very experienced.

And I have on a night out, I used to be asking them all the time, you know, you show me how to co-drive and you'll teach me, you know, what it is to be a co-driver.

And finally you give in.

And so like round us, you know, within an hour's driving, any direction of my house, there's been a harvest rally or a money stages rally.

So it's quite easy to get a roadbook and a set of pace notes from either Paterson's or Kelly and Duffy on the pace note.

And you go around, you just practice procedures, like learn how to use your roadbook and, you know, learn how to call notes and call them on time is the most important thing.

And then that's led to Liam and then ended up getting me my first seat with the guy from Michael and Mayo, who was also doing his first rally.

So the two of us were completely, completely green going into it.

Mayo stages rally in 2015.

And yeah, from then on it just kept chipping away by itself.

That's all very fascinating, actually.

And I'm sort of annoyed that I've gone down this route of asking questions because the one I've got on my list is kind of taking away from this.

But I feel like I should ask it and commit to my brief planning.

But that genuinely is, for anyone who's listening who is trying to get into this kind of stuff, everybody's story will be different.

But I think that is a lesson in, and I hate using the phrase networking because it feels far too business.

But it is like just speak to people, be approachable, be inquisitive and make things happen for yourself.

Nobody gives you a chance, do they?

It's always, and it sees little bits of fate and the ball rolls and then you end up being in the World Rally Championship looking at Shane.

I remember someone says to me before, he says, you're never going to get a seat sitting in the house.

You need to be out and about. You need to be seen.

And like that's nothing guaranteed.

Guarantees you a seat, sorry.

But like, you know, even as much as, you know, it's always very important to get on well with the mechanics that you're on.

Because someday, maybe some driver in that camp will be testing and the local co-driver, the normal co-driver is not there.

And that's where you can get your opportunity to maybe get, you know, some seat time and a bigger car and what you're used to.

Slowly, but surely that's how things kind of develop, you know.

Yeah. Yeah.

But it is a lesson that be nice to people.

Basically, it pays. It pays in the long run for sure.

Okay. My third of five questions here.

Greatest achievement outside of rallying.

So forget anything you've done in a rally car.

What are you most proud of outside of the sport?

This is a good question.

Right. I have an answer.

So in Ireland, we have our own sport, which is gay like football. You might be aware of it.

Yeah. Yeah.

Maybe need to send you a few videos on YouTube of it.

But yeah, many, many moons ago, when I was 15 or 16, my local club, Duncan Ely.

So the Irish, that is Ney Voulton.

We won the minor championship that year.

So we had like four league, county league and that's so we had four trophies that year.

And we actually won team of the year award as well that year.

So wow.

Many, many moons ago when I was a footballer.

See, it's always fascinating.

I think you find a lot of people in rallying have had a successful sporting past somewhere else.

Not everyone, but a lot of them seem to have some kind of talent.

And I guess that it kind of goes hand in hand, doesn't it?

We are elite sport. You're kind of good at something generally.

But John Armstrong maintains to me that he's a good goalkeeper, you know, that's his hidden talent.

I'm just going to say he's got the height, isn't he?

I guess he's tall for a rally driver.

So you can have that.

Can't say they've ever tried to shoot a ball past in those.

Maybe we'll arrange that one day.

We'll see.

I reckon he's good at Peter's Michael.

No further comment on that one.

Yeah, I'm trying to think, but no, I think that's probably it.

Because that's what I would have loved for back then was football and a plate soccer too.

So like between between both of them, that was that's what your life revolves around when you're in a teenager.

You know, what?

Yeah.

Yeah, I'm sound quite old now and I'm talking about 2008.

Nah, honestly, it's I think it scares everybody that it's now 2026.

The second after 2020 is everything has gone in a time warp machine.

It's terrifying.

So we're all just old now.

I think that's a human race.

Next question.

Yeah, exactly.

I feel it.

I've got no hair left either, pretty much.

So I've got that problem.

But anyways, it's not a competition, of course.

Next question.

This one is slightly more controversial.

So I'm happy to keep it as tame as possible if you like.

But what one rule would you change if you were completely in charge of the WRC or rallying?

And I say rule, it could be a thing.

So something like bring rally Ireland back or whatever.

If you had power to do one thing to change the world championship, what would you do?

Oh, not a good question.

Yeah, definitely would like rally Ireland or the WRC to come to Ireland at some stage in the near future.

Regarding rules, don't really know.

Look, I'm not in that zone long enough to probably have likes or dislikes for rules.

No answer is an answer.

If you don't have, because I haven't given you time to think about it.

We'll leave that one TBA.

We'll check back into the year and see what you're saying.

The final one then on my short list of not so quick for questions is the dream rally team.

So if you could pick drivers, however many you like, the car and a team principle from any year of any point from any championship ever, what is your dream rally team?

And you can bring yourself in here if you like.

Yes.

Okay, so we're going with the car first.

We're going with Sally, the Ford Puma.

Yeah, that's a solid choice.

John and myself.

Number one driver.

We're going to go with Chris Meek and Paul Nagel in the second car.

How many have we in the team now?

So this is up to you.

You can either take it as you want to go dream and or you can be strategic and think, oh, I want two or three or four drivers.

It's up to you what you think makes the best team.

So leaving it deliberately open for you.

Two is enough if you want only two, but you can have more.

I'm trying to think here.

Who else?

My immediate question though is you mentioned John and yourself as number one driver and co-driver.

Does that give you priority in the championship?

Is it team orders or Chris and Paul?

Of course.

You should do that.

Yeah, we'll go with Colin and Nikki then.

That's strong.

Yeah, that is strong.

Okay, so the three of you in Ford Puma Rally ones and any team principal and it could be someone who hasn't done the job before in the past.

I've asked people this question before and I think a couple said Ari Vatman and not to swear you, but that was a very good answer.

I have two guys in mind.

I think Rich needs to be there and also Gunther.

Yeah.

Do you know what?

That's a good Emsport heritage there as well, actually, across the whole job.

So that's good.

That's Ari on brand of you as well.

Yeah, so, yeah.

Turn off the cough.

That's who would pick you.

The thing is with these scenarios, you always change your mind, don't you?

It's tomorrow.

I could ask you the same question and someone else will see you again.

Colin Clark is team principal.

You might be in for a world of trouble.

Wouldn't it be boring though, wouldn't it?

It'd be entertaining for the entire time.

That's for sure.

Yeah.

Well, do you know what Shane?

That brings us on to, I guess, this season really.

We'll get a bit more into how you've come here, but what I want to know is how does it feel now that you're five events into this career?

I know when you're in the middle of it, you don't really think about it like that.

You're just doing a rally season, aren't you?

And it's so intense that you're like on the hamster wheel and constantly concentrating on the next thing.

But do you ever allow yourself to really reflect and think, wow, I've got to this point?

And I guess even the start of two of you have made it's been super strong as well.

Yeah.

Obviously, going to Monte Carlo, that's like probably one of the toughest Monty's.

And some people say the last 10 or 15 years, but yeah, it was Monty's all about survival and just to get through.

And, you know, lucky enough, we were third overall on the Friday night.

I remember we were looking at the part of the regs and it's just on about the Friday night at the top three drivers and team principals to be there.

And ISIS will be able to go to the hotel.

ISIS before that.

And we were laughing afterwards.

He says, I can't go now.

He says, I have to do this media obligation.

But yeah.

And then the first three events, you'd like Monty, Sweden and Kenya, can I typically all unique in their own way?

And Monty was tough.

There's no doubt about it.

It's tough on the Ritual crews as well.

And obviously we're new to the WRC this year with the new Ritual crew team.

So you're trying to get all your procedures and your working systems in place.

And, you know, it's never fixed.

It's always evolving.

You're always looking for improvements across the whole board.

So we're all getting used to each other and the guys doing a great job.

And we went to Sweden and Sweden.

Sweden was a dream to do.

It was just the schedules a little bit more relaxed than Monty and my first time in snow.

And like, you know, I'm just thinking of a rule change.

You definitely would love to include another snow rally in the calendar.

Snow is just amazing to be honest, you know.

And then Kenya was, you know, I don't think you need to say much about Kenya.

It's just a full experience in itself from just arriving to start rallying.

It's bonkers out there at times, you know.

And then, yeah, but once you have two or three done, you kind of start to like,

well, for me, you know, you're able to enjoy them a bit more now.

And you just get used to, like for me, look this year, this is the first time I'm like,

this is essentially my job now.

So it's a wee bit of adjusting in that regard, you know.

Because I was working last year along competing.

So this year, I'm lucky in my position to be able to call this my job.

So you're just making adjustments as you go along.

But no, definitely loving life in the WRC.

And the more events you do, the more you get used to them.

And also most of every event this year that I'm going to is new to me.

Like you're going back to events for like the second time.

So Croatia is sort of an example when you've kind of been there before, okay.

This year, there's a little bit further up the road.

But yeah, you kind of feel as if you've been there before.

So you've kind of, next to that, it's confidence going there.

And you know the lay of the land and what the roads are like and whatnot.

So, yeah, like one thing's for sure, we're past Portugal now.

We're going to Japan in two days time.

It's time flies, you know, just one event after another.

And some events are back to back.

So yeah, the workload can be a little bit intense for everybody.

But no, you just get on with it and you know, you give it your best shot when you're out there.

Just to make this clear as well, and you've obviously referenced it there.

And I think I did earlier on in this podcast as well.

But these five events you've done, obviously your first five in rally one,

but they are your first five ever in the world championship.

It's quite incredible that I remember speaking to Owen Tracy would be just over a year ago.

It was when he was announced as Josh's co-driver for their first full season in the car last year.

And I think he'd done maybe two or three events in World Championship alongside John Coyne,

who obviously is the patron for the Motorsport Ireland rally academy.

And that at the time was like, whoa, this is crazy.

But you've gone and you've served that in this crazy stat.

And yeah, you obviously had been to World Championship rally before.

You'd worked as a route note crew for Josh, actually, you know, and incidentally.

But this is your first time actually competing in the WRC.

It was Monte Carlo in a rally one car.

It's just bonkers.

I know on paper it's like, geez, this can't be real.

But now I kind of have funny luck like that in a good way.

But hey, it's the same thing.

You know, you prepare the amount of work you're in.

You prepare the same level of preparation.

And then it's just obviously the cars go a little bit faster.

So you just have to adjust to the pace.

And as we've seen in Monte on the Sunday, like some of the cars running behind

the rally threes are actually quicker as the road was improving all the time,

which is, you know, just kind of hard to believe looking at it in paper.

But yeah, but no, I'm not complaining about the experience either.

The first rally in the WRC in a rally one.

Definitely not.

I bet you it.

But I guess it is weirdly, and I don't want to get bogged down in the future

because none of us really know exactly what 27 will look like.

But I know John's spoken about this.

It's quite nice to get this opportunity now, isn't it?

Because we know that next year's cars won't be quite the same as this,

probably in terms of performance.

So this is a, you get into experience that, which is really cool.

You take any chance you get.

But to get to being these cars is pretty special as well.

Yeah, it's for sure.

It's definitely, it's unreal to be part of the rally one area,

rally one area before it comes to a close.

And obviously the other thing is it's very important to get to all the kilometres

as much as you can this year for going into 2027.

Is it going to get slower?

Yeah, but sometimes the sport takes a dip before it comes back up.

We would have seen that in the past, like many, many years ago in rallying.

So, but the main thing is just that you're there and you're ready to go.

Because then the day, as long as everyone is in similar cars

and there's a race on, you know, a race is a race, regardless of what you're in.

Yeah, that's very true.

And that's another thing to get printed on a t-shirt.

It's got a nice little quote.

But has anything surprised you negatively or positively about the WRC?

I don't know what expectations or preconceptions you had before this year,

but having done five events, has anything sort of taken you by surprise

has all been kind of as you'd expected?

No, nothing stands out.

Nothing that I can think of offhand.

I think maybe when you're around events, like I was working for

Josh and James Fulton for a season at Rootnote and then Josh and Owen last year,

I think you start to kind of get used to the templates and the run-ins of the rally

and no different like to see in the competitors.

You're kind of used to being around them.

So that doesn't as much of an awe when you start your first rally in amongst them.

You know, when you have a nine-time world champion to the beside you,

you know, them things don't faze you as much as what they did at home.

You have to, obviously, you respect them so much more when you're in that kind of group

and you're competing against them and you see how just how they are,

what they do at everything, you know.

But maybe that's something that I didn't really,

I just didn't realize how good they actually are until you're in beside them.

You say that, but I think it's probably fair to say the last two events

maybe haven't gone quite the plan, but generally speaking,

the start of this season has been so positive for the two of you.

I think it was hard to know what to expect, certainly outwardly.

I don't know if you had many expectations or if you're willing to share it now,

but we all seen what you've done in ERC,

but quantifying that in a rally two car to the world challenging rally one was very difficult to know.

And I would say I've got a bit of reputation for being a big supporter of John's

and I think rightly so because I think for a lot of years he's been underrated maybe

and sort of got under the radar.

But it's been really nice to see what the two of you have done.

And I have to say as well, you've had, and I promise I'm not saying it just because you're here,

but you've done such a sterling job to just get in and do the job

because I think you're like the goalkeepers, aren't you, as the co-drivers?

You only really talked about if things go wrong.

And that hasn't happened, so that's massive credit to you as well.

I think the start of the season, you look like you belong in this company basically

is what I'm trying to say.

Yeah, so John Coyne, as you know, is the patron of the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy

and John gave us a massive opportunity last year to do a full campaign on the ERC

and the start of 2025 was rocky, just, you know, it was hard to get a bit of luck

and we had a lot of punctures, but sometimes you have to create your own luck, you know,

and do things to avoid certain situations.

So we worked hard in different situations and scenarios like that

and we came to Barham and that's just when the turn of luck came and the pace was there

and we were back, excuse me, we were behind Jan Capecchi that day

and, you know, we had the pace for him, but Jan was just taking that little bit of time

out of every stage and you kind of list your answers, you learn how to manage your lead.

So fast forward a couple of weeks around the care diggy on Wales then

and we take our first one.

So we kind of, you had to learn that day how to manage your lead

because the conditions had changed quite a bit on the Sunday

and our teammate, Romit and Sam, were chasing us down.

They were hot on our tails and, you know, you do it once.

It's unreal, it's your first one and went into Croatia then

and Croatia was like a mathematical possible day of one in the championship

and Andrea, Mabelini and Marcek had, you know, like DNF has such retired

and Mabelini went out and I think it was the first day and Marcek was,

he had to finish eighth or more behind and he was actually eighth on the Sunday

and we were saying we have a chance here, we had to go fastest on the power stage

and we did that but Marcek was really, really fast on the Sunday

and he won the championship and fully deserved him and Simone

but after that you're kind of wondering like what's the plan for 2026

and John Coyne has great belief in us and this program came together

so yeah, we've a lot to thank John and the Academy for it

because without them we definitely wouldn't be doing what we're doing this year

and that's a big privilege.

It certainly is, I have to say and I've said this a lot

and I've actually spoken to John on this very podcast.

I think the setup in Ireland is kind of like the envy of a lot of countries around the world

to have this opportunity, it's incredible isn't it, to be part of that generation

and this is a story with Rowling, it is sadly a financially dominated sport

so there's so many folk that maybe should have had a chance, maybe shouldn't have or whatever

but it's very clear that you two both have the talent, you've got the backing there as well

which is ideal and you're showing it

but I'm going to ask you, what did you expect at the start of the year

or did you genuinely not have any expectation and you just sort of like to ride and see what happened?

Yeah because the three of us had sat down together and we talked

and there was like a provisional plan put together and it was 12 events

but there's never no mention of Rally 1 or Rally 2

but naturally you never think you're going to get into Rally 1

you always have the aspiration to be in it you know

and so we were like right okay, you know, wonder what the two events are not doing

and as you know like everything is always provisional

and I think it's been organised until I suppose it's final as such

and then so we're going over to the sport day

and I, it was up to, we're doing a full championship then

so we were thinking it's a nice one you know because we knew it was 2027 coming

we'll have a full year done in the Rally 2 car and we'll be matched fit against the rest of the guys

Russell, the Grisons of the WRC

and I remember an email came in and it was something like

oh can you guys, here's the itinerary for when you arrive over

we're doing the head shot at such and a time can you please be in such and a room

and I said to John, I was like that's the kind of stuff that used to be done

when they were announcing like when Seb and Julian were being announced

and you know and stuff like that and I was thinking

maybe we're not going in the Rally 2, maybe it's the Rally 1

so John had travelled from his own place

in the UK Uptemps sport that morning and I had

I don't know where did I fly from was it Dublin but the coordinator

of the academy Sean McHugh was with me

so he travelled, no I met him and Josh and

Owen and the airport jumped in the car and went up the road

and all like the conversation could be anything about what was going on in M Sport that day

and afterwards they were like did you

genuinely not know so after the announcement it came

like Malcolm Wilson says

did you guys really not know like that this was happening

so it was probably everybody even our engineer Rory who it's nice that

Rory came up with us to Rally 1, Rory says I even knew before you guys

so but no I wouldn't change it now looking back it was

you'll only get that excitement once of being promoted to the

top level you know you can never relive that again

but I forget now what you asked me remember I was saying this earlier

Shane said to me before we started recording

I'll try and answer the question that you asked me he said he can go on

but I like that I say I don't want this to be an interview I want it to be a conversation

so that's good I don't mind but I'll reintroduce

my question as it were I guess once you've got this chance and it was

like what early December was it you were announced you had like five or six weeks

before you were in Monte Carlo so not a long time at all

I remember I saw you at a pre-season test didn't I in Monaco and you

looked very I don't want to seem nervous I don't think that's fair but I think you were just very focused

you were like let's get this first event out the way and then see

what happens but between yourselves you and John and I guess your close team around

you has the start of the season been above

your expectation below or around about what you did expect

um

yeah well I suppose nobody likes you know not finishing rallies but

our pace has been very good we've had like a

top three stage time and each rally we've did out of the six rallies

um Croatia was very

very strong pace as well um and it was nice to be able

to you know to showcase that pace because

realistically you shouldn't be able to do that your first year but obviously the Canaries was

a little bit difficult with Portugal but it's like this look you'll get

days like that you know what it was never going to be easy you know you're racing

the best cruise in the world so you take the good with the bad

and any of the bad days you have you need to take a lesson or learn from it and bring it

forward into the next but no we're both enjoying what we're doing

and every day you get to go out and one of them carries you have a new day to showcase what you

what you and your team can do so

um now we don't get too bogged down on it because um

there could be much worse things happening oh that's for sure

100% um how much though does that

10th of a second haunt you from Croatia a 10th of a second away from that stage

win I can't remember what stage it was it was on Friday wasn't it um

I know stage 16 platyque well that's the one that had quite a bit

of snow on it leading up to the event but I think we're 1.9

up on elven and scott and then once we came on to the wide

brother road maybe four or five k from the end we

were 1.9 down on them at the end of the stage but um

yeah I'm sure it'll come in time it's all about

timing and the sport so I'm sure it'll come in good time

is it a target or is it kind of silly to get too obsessed with things like that

oh no you have like we both have

have goals and targets to have this year yeah be silly if it was

saying it wasn't it's just one of the targets but it's not one of the high ones it's down

in the list so there's other things you need to achieve before you're you know

looking for that there but no it's definitely on the list

and you know what's coming there don't you what what

else what are the higher targets for the rest of 2026

I'm walking out the slows that wouldn't be fair

that's valid that's a question for the driver somebody else

yeah we'll point that question over to john yeah that's fine back that off

so john if you're listening that question's coming um but

in all seriousness actually we haven't talked about this yet um your relationship with john

obviously in the car it began at start of 25 didn't

obviously Owen who's now your teammate was john's co-driver in

2024 before he took the chance with with josh it's quite strange how all this

has worked out but how well did you know john before

you started working together last year and I guess how is your relationship

blossomed from there because it's that old saying is it that you kind of need to be

like an old married couple as driver and co-driver you spend that much time together

so you have to get on don't you it doesn't really work if you don't so it looks like

to see if you do get on but yeah how is that relationship formed and begun and

blossomed I guess yeah john lives about 40 minutes so

his home place sorry is about 40 minutes up the road for me but no I always knew

john as someone who was kind of doing like rallying international but never

never knew him and met him um and then

there was there was a fundraiser for

john and them for to go to the last round of the JWRC

a couple of years back and um that's probably the first

time I met him was up in Keshe and his name was up again Gary Jennings

place it was up in the Mayfly Inn so uh Andrew Nesbit was the

MC on the night and uh yes the first time I met him and

then I was out spectating at uh what

rather canaries in 2024

so that would have been I think john and own made of a two or three rallies

together at that stage so met him there again and

yeah little little did I know what would be happening the following year we're

paired together so um yeah it's been

things happened quick-looking like obviously john had a lot a lot of

experience and I didn't have any international experience really you have to

hit the ground running and uh you know the the time for learning really isn't

there but at any seat I've kind of really had in the past at home to

even now it's it's always been like that so it's it's nothing really new

to me you know in a nice way so I'm kind of used to them

scenarios but um no we work hard and we kind of

when you're in the rally car there's a time to be serious but also a fun but then

like I'd say that you know john's a really relaxed laid back person so

you know there'll be there'll be a good crack along the way

yeah I can see that with TV even now it's it's blossoming a bit and I think

it was obviously in Portugal when you ended up driving the car for a bit

those some good crack with the TV cameras around that scenario but talk to us

about that as well because I mean I probably wasn't really part of the

the dream list of what you're doing it's not your job but to drive that thing on the road

section even if it's still a road section must have been pretty cool even if

the circus acts unfortunate with with the power steering yeah

no it was like I don't know how difficult it was in the stage but it

was tough on the road section um you're holding the steering wheel

like 10 and 5 and then 2 and 7 just to make sure

it's like it's quite a heavy car too but no it's just that's all

part of the job because it's give him a wee break from driving and just reset again

because um you know as you seen

on the on the stage it's quite difficult to maneuver that car around with

no power steering and yeah just any of the tight corners then

he just says pull the handbrake so no I just there's no issue as I said

it was a little bit of multitasking call notes and and uh pulling the handbrake

how do you do that or is that maybe the

point is that you don't know you just do it if that makes sense because it was

and I remember the commentators picked up on it but they were completely right it was beautiful

to see that teamwork and it was like it was a point where you even shifted the gear down

for him it was just instinctive helping him out through the corners it was it was really

quite cool to see for pulling the handbrake it's uh I don't know

you had like sometimes you had to squeeze it for a second other times it's for

maybe two seconds but you just had to try and visualize how you would pull it if you were driving

that's the way it's worked in my head on approaching them all the time

um because you needed to try and get the car the car rotate as much as

you can but like there was another corner we're coming around and so for

some reason I thought the car was struggling to rotate around and I pulled

the handbrake and I could hear him he says he says F yeah

so when we went over the finish and I bust out laughing but

someone had sent it to me on rally tv you can hear Jenny and he's like

I wonder what they're laughing at there but I was he said you nearly put me

off the road

this is it isn't it you have obviously as you say that that that whole

as it's Friday afternoon obviously in Portugal isn't it that was all of that was making

the best of a bad situation in the I actually I think even John said

this himself quite did very well to not lose that much

time I can't remember what the damage was in the end but it could have been a lot worse

um and I guess that makes it maybe more frustrating what happened on the Saturday

was that you fought back into a decent place but this is the point isn't it

when anything goes wrong in rallying smile laugh stay positive keep

going because that mentality that I actually will reverse the

situation always yeah it could have been very easy

just to give up and you know retire but um as I say

that doesn't experience for both of us to do the four stages

with no power steering so um yeah you just wouldn't

want to be doing it again in a hurry but no

it was just unfortunate the way that Saturday unfolded but

um yeah sometimes that's just the way rally goes

it is yeah if it was easy we'd all be doing it I think is the

phrase um so yeah sadly we can't all

some of us still have the dream but looking ahead to the rest of

the year as you said it's Japan next week you're flying out there in a couple of days

that's going to be some experience as well final event on tarmac before

we've got seven on gravel it's a cliche question this but is there any

one out of these coming eight events that particularly stands out is one you're

looking forward to potentially Finland if I was to make a guess

um looking forward to going to Japan because I've been in Japan twice doing

route notes so I suppose quite familiar with the lay of the land

that um but it's nice to be returned now as a competitor for the last time in a

rally one car so that'll be that'll be special and the fans are amazing

out there they're so passionate and and yeah it's just it's

arguably one of the best countries in the world in my opinion and then

after that rally I would say yeah Finland

I don't think anyone can say no to Finland

um yeah it's just it's great to get a shot

at Finland and the rally one cars because as everyone knows the speed is so high

and yes just it's uh should be in a buzz for

three or four days in one of the M cars on the stages so yeah really

looking forward to it. Yeah I think one of those

things if you weren't a professional co-driver you want to do I guess one if you

to pick anywhere in the world to have a ride in a rally car you'd pick there

then you'd be absolutely terrified at the same time

but I guess for you you don't have time for that you just do your job don't you

um and it's it's quite this is the thing that I think people that don't do it in myself included

obviously just don't understand it's how you do it because we sit

and watch it and you maybe don't actually really take in what you're doing

and you probably don't either but to sit there while your driver is just going flat

chat everywhere a camera's like calling notes it's

I think almost an even more impressive skill than what the drivers do it's it's

something else that talent that you've got to do that job it's it's mental to me

I remember from sitting on before when some guys were testing close

to home and like when you have no pace notes you see everything that goes on you see

every little bit of maybe slide or understeer or something

everything's like in control but the driver just might be pushing

on a certain corner but at least when you've said a pace notes you don't notice as much

and uh remember someone said before that like

the co-driver always has to reach reach the end of the stage before the driver

which is quite a quite a good point you know so it means that he's

not behind on the notes but um now you get when you're in the

there is sections there's we have quite a bit of detail on the notes

but it works very well but like there is sections where

it is quite demanding to call notes and you know if you lid it in

phase you can get easily get left behind but um

no it's uh once you get your brain

calibrated to the speed of them you can kind of understand how quick you're going and

you know maybe sometimes the really flat out sections you need to be quite

a bit ahead but then obviously some of the slower rallies

it's uh it's very manageable to call but each rally

presents their own unique challenge like from a co-driver's point of view in my opinion

so you just uh yeah it's

just they're a pretty cool car to be on. Yeah

permission to get nerdy here actually before we wrap this up and sorry if we draw up a couple of

issues in this but I don't care um I want to ask and I'm lucky enough

to be in a position that I can uh talking about pace notes and

for me it's easier to understand what you two do because you speak English and my

French is marginal I don't speak any other language so

I struggle to really take in everybody else but am I right in saying that

you guys are using an angle system for corners I've seen the one that always sticks in my

head is right and left zero which is basically straight but a slight

kick is this correct like your base and corners have angles or is that too simplistic

so like yeah left and right zero for John is maybe

for someone else like slight left and slight right very little movement this year

and then six and five is starting to

go a little bit more angled like still flat out and then you come down to your

ones which is obviously tight and then we have right and left

78 and nine which is you're coming into like

you know herp and right and left so

no it's a good system like inning the system is a little bit

confusing at the start but once you do a runner two and a test

all of a sudden you just get you're able to understand the pace note

system quite well because like elven system is the opposite

one is I think is flat out for him while six for

us is flat out so just different pace note systems no right or wrong

way and obviously you have certain

shorter words that you use some guys for example you slow

we use slowing and stop or big stop so

it's whatever works for the driver. Yeah and that's the key point

isn't it because you obviously have to understand it because you're there calling it and you're

there writing it on recce but essentially it doesn't really matter what

you think so what your driver needs isn't it you just have to give

them the information that they need so it's yeah I guess

it's an interesting thing to learn isn't it

it's adapt to other drivers habits and obviously now you're sitting with John for

a year and a bit but before that you need to work with different drivers with different ways of doing things

so it is all just about adapting isn't it. Yeah like some drivers like

just quite a monotone voice and other drivers like for you to bring the intensity

up and down a little bit especially you know flat out sections is generally

calm as such and then when you come into areas where you need to get the

anchors on quick obviously you need to raise your voice or we use

the fingers at any time we have a slow on or a stop it's you just

kind of shake the finger I actually see quite a few doing that so it

obviously works for numerous drivers.

And final topic I wanted to touch on is just the

set up really yet. Obviously your teammates with

Josh and Owen but you're also I don't know if teammates is the right phrase but

you're all part of the same academy as Motorsport Ireland as well so I think

that's quite a unique set up in the world challenge but I guess it probably

works to your advantage you obviously don't know any different you haven't done another season

of this but it seems like you're all

you really are a team aren't you as opposed to like hiding things and

obviously you want to beat each other that's competition but it's

friendly off the stage it's a nice set up isn't it everyone it's like a big family almost is that fair?

Yeah it's great to be you know team

mates with Josh and Owen because they've been very accommodate and very helpful and it's been very

helpful to me since coming to the WRC because he knows himself the

thoughts you have and that's you know and the things you want to know about when you're

making your debut and debut season and you just want to have all the boxes

ticked look you know and that and you know there's

Owen said everything is kept open and we're both there to help each other and

to prove all the time because we're all trying to you know cement a future

in the WRC getting into 2027 so I got

two we all have our good days and our bad days and competition and

you know we're always there to support each other at the same time so

you know what to say and teamwork makes the dream work is that cliche?

There it is yeah that's a Euro in the swear jar but you can

have that that's fine I've dropped a couple of this as well

but it's true isn't it genuinely is true like you need

all the right people behind you to make this work and it's far more than just the two of you in the car

there's an army of folk and I think everybody can understand that

M Sport is in a more complicated and difficult situation without

anyone near the same budget as the rivals and so just

making the event is an effort for you guys isn't it sometimes so

yeah it's a proper team effort and it's great to see that you're bringing some

much needed positivity I think to a team with your stage times

Yeah I know it's a big team effort and like from Malcolm

and Sam and Recky support to coordinate and to our number one Chris

and our engineer Rory and the rest of our mechanics and the boys and gears and the workshop

it's everybody's a massive part to play in and everybody's

heavily involved so no it's that's one thing for sure it's definitely

a good team atmosphere Shane Byrne

thank you very much for your time today on Spin the Rally pod we did

hear the rain in the background so that proves that you are still in Ireland and I understand you've got some

exercise so you're going for a run which is not what I'm going to do with my evening I'm going to be honest as I

joke to you only one of us is a racing snake and it isn't me

Well I have umbrella here beside me so I might manage a run

in between the showers

You're ready for it but yeah thank you very much for your time

it's been great to learn more about you I'm sure the listeners feel the same and we keep our

fingers crossed that the rest of 2026 can go as well as it started

Yeah thank you Luke I appreciate it very much it's great to be on

Perfect and if you would like to listen to this podcast

add free why not join club Dirt Fisher Day

where you will unlock many more perks including bonus podcast features

and videos around the WRC you can even see more of Colin

Kirk pestering Shane on the road section so for that alone it's probably

worth seeing but on that note

One last note on that there when obviously we left the road in Portugal

went up to slow down the cars just okay

ward off because that's the next step we have to do but when I

maybe ten minutes had passed and I came back down to the car who did I see in the

bushes only Colin interviewing John and I remember

just laughing at myself thinking that's how good he is at his job like he was able

to figure out where we were was in that such a short time frame

and all I can see was the orange jacket in the bushes so

fair play Colin

yeah do you know what and I'm gonna say

well I don't want to credit as he feels weird me giving credit because it's part of the team

but we are quite good at that I think as Dirt Fisher

it is quite a slick operation whenever this happens you go up the track and you're like

right what's happened can we get there yes can we do it yes and they're away

but all you guys are great sports you always will accept interview and go with it

and that works and so it's nice to see there's respect on both ends

but yeah that's a nice comment I'm sure he'll appreciate that

because it's not always easy some of them are intense to get there but I think this one was

quite simple wasn't it given where it was in the stage but

yeah it's one of those things isn't it but yeah you have become a bit of a star

of the star interviews now Shane I have to say you're growing in

stature and I know John tries to get you to take the mic sometimes as well so

the media presence is increasing with every round

yeah I suppose it's a nice skill to have

you know it'll not do you any harm in a way if you're able to talk on camera or

microphone so yeah just like anything

the more you do it the better you get at it well you hope so

and on that note I'll go for my second attempt at outro

thank you very much for listening we'll be back next week

for some rally Japan preview content so make sure you don't miss it subscribe

to spin the rally pod on your favourite podcast platform and we will see you

very very soon thank you very much

The newest member of the WRC's Rally1 club: Shane Byrne

About this episode

Nissan Micra

Mark II Escorts

track day

WRC car

two-wheel drive

traction control

WRC had to offer

Evo 9

midpoint radio 2

herping race

BMW E36

BMW M3

Ford Puma

Chevrolet Monte Carlo

Monte Carlo rally pace and Sunday conditions

rally threes

road was improving all the time

WRC Rally1

punctures

manage your lead

DNF

power stage

power steering

handbrake

shifted the gear down

car rotate

pace notes

understeer

runner two

slowing

big stop

recce

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