Mark Kelly will challenge for the 2025 Protyre Motorsport UK Asphalt Rally Championship title in a Kelmore-backed Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 – and he’ll debut the car on an event he won last year, the opening East Riding Stages (23 February).
The Manchester-based driver has rallied a Ford Fiesta R5 and a Škoda Fabia R5 in the series before – winning the Tour of Epynt and Hills Ford rallies, scoring multiple podiums, leading many other events and finishing runner-up in the drivers’ standings in 2021.
For this year’s Protyre Asphalt title assault, Mark has purchased the Polo off Melvyn Evans Motorsport; it’s the car that Meirion Evans rallied so successfully in Ireland. He’ll run the car himself, with Dave Higgins leading the engineering squad.
Mark will be co-driven by Will Atkins.
“I’m putting no expectations on myself,” said Mark.
“Pace comes from having the confidence to push hard, so we’ll be taking it one event at a time to give ourselves a chance to learn the new car.
“One thing is for sure, and that’s we must start finishing rallies.
“Often the pace has been there, but sometimes we’ve struggled to string consistent results together. That’s one thing we’ll be really focusing on this year.
“I’m looking forward to driving the Volkswagen. People tell me that the Polo is the car to have on asphalt, so I’m looking forward to finding that out for myself!”
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