Rising Welsh rally star Ioan Lloyd and co-driver Sion Williams will open their campaign in the FIA Junior European Rally Championship on Rally Sierra Morena in Spain on 4-6 April.

The 22-year-old driver from West Wales, and co-driver Williams, are contesting the high-profile international series in a Peugeot 208 Rally4 from Tagai Racing Technology (TRT) based in Hungary. The Junior ERC is one of the most competitive and prestigious junior rally championships in the world.

Ioan, who has progressed through the sport from Junior 1000, up to BTRDA and the Welsh Championships, was recently selected for the 2025 Motorsport UK Academy cohort as part of Team UK, with Sion selected in the Co-Driver class.

The six-round championship FIA Junior European Rally Championship opens in Spain next weekend and then visits Hungary in May, Poland in June, Italy in July, the Czech Republic in August, and Croatia in early October. Lloyd and Williams will be part of a very strong four-car team from TRT, which includes Rally2 cars for Mads Ostberg and Max McRae and Rally4 cars for Lloyd and young Irishman Keelan Grogan.

The 42nd running of Rally Sierra Morena is an all-asphalt event, a hugely popular rally on the Spanish calendar. There are no less than 22 contenders in the Junior ERC with young crews from all over Europe. Lloyd and Williams will start as the ninth crew in the JERC ranks.

Lloyd said, “We don’t know too much about the rally apart from watching on-board footage from previous events. So it is a new challenge. The roads look fantastic but with very different characteristics for the stages. It’s a new challenge for us and there are a lot more factors and things that we haven’t had to tackle before.

“There is an amazing buzz around the rally. There are 22 juniors in total and they’re all really good quality. I’m really looking forward to it. It’ll be challenging, for sure. I think we can only do our best and see where we’re at. It’s difficult to put any targets on it, because it’s the first rally of the season and it’s our first proper European rally. We’ll try our best, for sure. It’s going to be mighty!”