Jonathan Greer says the decision to return to the British Rally Championship has been fuelled by the desire to try something different in his Citroen C3 Rally2.
Greer is set to make his long-awaited comeback to the competition on next weekend’s Voyonic Grampian Forest Rally with Niall Burns — nearly five years on from his last appearance.
Having sealed the Northern Ireland Rally Championship title for a fifth time with a round to spare — and his Irish Tarmac Championship campaign bearing little fruit — Greer has been assessing his options.
In preparation for the Banchory-based fixture, which gets underway on Friday with two stages followed by a further seven on Saturday, the 35-year-old started June’s Kielder Forest Rally and last month’s RSAC Scottish Rally and finished both meetings second overall in his French car.
“It’s been nice to do some other rallies this year and with the Northern Ireland Rally Championship secured in May, it has opened up the opportunity to try events I have been looking to do for a while,” explained Greer, who finished third overall in the BRC standings in 2011 and again in 2016.
“We have had a few zero scores in the Irish Tarmac Championship which put us out of contention, so I fancied a change, and as I had wanted to try gravel again, we headed over to Kielder to see what the C3 was like on gravel —and I really enjoyed it.
“I was a little surprised at our pace initially as it took a bit of getting used to, but second overall was a very good result for us there. The Scottish was similar in that it initially felt a little slow but when we looked at the times, they were respectable, so to go and take second against David Bogie on home soil was very pleasing.
“We have been taking it rally-by-rally and the Grampian seemed like a great option — I am looking forward to getting back amongst the series again.
“It has been a while for us, and the pace is next level right now. The hope is not to get too blown away by the others, and have a bit of fun.”