Kris Meeke

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Kris Meeke
File:KrisMeeke.JPG
Kris Meeke at the 2009 Rally Scotland
Personal information
Nationality United Kingdom British
Born (1979-07-02) 2 July 1979 (age 44)
World Rally Championship record
Active years 2002–present
Teams Mini WRC Team, Citroën Abu Dhabi WRT
Rallies 68
Championships 0
Rally wins 2
Podiums 8
Stage wins 36
Total points 255
First rally 2002 Rally GB
First win 2015 Rally Argentina
Last win 2016 Rally Portugal
Last rally 2016 Rally Portugal

Kris Meeke (born 2 July 1979) is a British professional rally driver from Northern Ireland, currently competing in the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC). He was the 2009 Intercontinental Rally Challenge champion. His current co-driver is Paul Nagle.[1] He originally began his career as a Computer Aided Designer with M-Sport, at the headquarters of the Ford World Rally Team, before moving on to competing in the Peugeot Super 106 Cup in 2001.[2]

In 2011, Meeke debuted in the World Rally Championship driving a MINI for Prodrive. His first event was the Rally d'Italia Sardegna which was held between 5–8 May. Meeke scored his first WRC points and won the Power Stage at the 2011 Rally Catalunya. His maiden WRC win was at the 2015 Rally Argentina, where he became the first British driver to win a WRC rally in 13 years.

Career

Meeke, son of rally engineer Sydney Meeke, was born in Dungannon, Northern Ireland and educated at the Royal School Dungannon. He later went on to study at Queen's University, Belfast, where he obtained a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He initially worked for M-Sport as a Computer Aided Designer. He took his first step into rallying in 2000, when he won a Peugeot competition for new rally drivers.[citation needed]

His debut event was the Bulldog Rally held in North Wales, even leading the event for a time. After mixed results, his first victory came on the third round of the 2001 Peugeot Super 106 Cup, the Swansea Bay Festival National Rally. In early 2002, Meeke's career was boosted when he was taken under the wing of the late Colin McRae and contested the British Junior Championship in a Ford Puma. In June, Meeke won in his category in the Scottish Rally after a calculated drive overseen by McRae, and took second on the Jim Clark Rally, his first full tarmac event. Third position in the final round of the series was however enough for Meeke to claim the British Junior Rally Championship title in only his second season in the sport, as well as third in the British S1600 series.[citation needed]

JWRC

The following year, Meeke moved up to the Junior World Rally Championship (JWRC), driver an Opel Corsa run by Team Palmer. He made an impressive debut setting the fastest time on two of the final leg stages however a string of minor problems dropped Meeke down the order. He retired in the next rally and a potential second-place finish in Italy was lost after a crash. Shortly afterwards he claimed consolation by winning the British S1600 title. On the final round of the 2003 JWRC held in Britain, Meeke was running in 2nd place in the JWRC and in 17th position overall before being forced to retire after hitting a rock and rolling his car.[citation needed]

Meeke kicked the 2004 season off in style by finishing 3rd in class in the Rally of Monte Carlo. He then took part in the British S1600 event in Wales as a shakedown for the next JWRC in Greece, winning the Welsh event along the way. The next two JWRC events in Greece and Turkey were marred by mechanical problems on the rough gravel terrain. He then took part in the Pirelli Rally in Tampere as shakedown for the next JWRC event in Finland, scoring a class win in Pirelli Rally. He was leading the Finnish JWRC event before a mistake caused him to crash and retire. A spirited drive saw him set seven fastest stage times and finish on the podium in second place.[citation needed]

IRC

File:KrisMeekeinPeugeot207S2000.jpg
Meeke in the Peugeot 207.

In 2009, Meeke alongside co-driver Paul Nagle contested the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC) in a Peugeot UK backed 207 S2000, run by the Belgian Kronos Racing team. He crashed out heavily on the Monte Carlo Rally but went on to win the next three rounds he competed in at Brazil, Portugal, and Belgium.[2] He won the championship at the penultimate round by winning Rally Sanremo in Italy, after his closest rival Jan Kopecky crashed on the second stage.

Meeke finished off the season with a dominant win of the inaugural Rally Scotland, winning 7 of the 13 stages on the way to victory. He starred in a wave of adverts for the Peugeot 207 in 2009, with the tagline "He's Meeke, but he's not mild".[3] For 2010, Meeke continued his successful partnership with Paul Nagle and Peugeot, competing in 10 rounds of the IRC.[4]

File:Ss9 meeke.jpg
Meeke with a Citroën C2 S1600 at the 2005 Acropolis Rally.

WRC

On 2 September 2010, Autosport magazine announced that Meeke had signed for the Prodrive team that would run MINI World Rally Championship (WRC) return in 2011.[5] Meeke scored his first WRC points and won the Power Stage at the 2011 Rally Catalunya.[6] Meeke came close to gaining his maiden podium at the final round of the season, the 2011 Rally GB but spun on the Power Stage allowing Henning Solberg to take third place.[citation needed]

Meeke appeared in an edition of the BBC show Top Gear in a challenge similar to that of Henning Solberg driving a rally car against the Norwegian Olympic Bobsleigh team. Meeke rallied a Mini John Cooper Works WRC on a downhill snow track in a race against skeleton competitor Amy Williams at the Lillehammer Olympic Bobsleigh and Luge Track. Williams raced down the bobsleigh track whilst Meeke's route ran downhill alongside. With Top Gear presenter James May as his "co-driver," Meeke set a time of 59.73 in the Mini, beating Williams who finished with a time of 1:01.04. On 22 December 2011, Meeke was dropped from the Mini WRC Team for the following month's Monte Carlo Rally in a crisis within the Prodrive-run team over budget for the 2012 season.[citation needed]

Meeke returned to the WRC, driving for the Abu Dhabi Citroën Total World Rally Team as a stand in for Khalid Al Qassimi in the 2013 Rally Finland.[7]

Meeke was running comfortably in fifth place and set for an impressive points earning finish on his WRC return before rolling in the final section of the penultimate stage of the rally.[8] Meeke would once again drive a Citroën DS3 WRC in September during the 2013 Rally Australia taking the place of works driver Dani Sordo.[9] After completing his first full season in 2014 in the Citroen team, Meeks finished 7th in the standings with 4 podiums to his name. He remained with Citroen for 2015 alongside Mads Ostberg, with Sebastian Loeb also joining him in Monte Carlo. In Monte he finished 10th, winning 3 stages in the rally and the power stage among them. He won his maiden rally in Argentina, ending a 13-year drought of British winners of a WRC event. After winning, he emotionally said, "This one is for Colin." Meeke had a close friendship with 1995 World Champion Colin McRae, who supported him during his career until the Scotsman was killed in a helicopter crash in 2007. At the end of the 2015 season, Meeke finished 5th in the standings, just behind teammate Mads Ostberg, with 112 points to his name. On the 16th of December it was announced that Kris would have a 3 year contract with Citroen, up until the end of 2018.

Lurgan Park Rally

Meeke won the 2012 Lurgan Park Rally in the McGeehan Motorsport Mini John Cooper Works WRC. This was his second attempt at the rally. His previous entry to the rally was a Mk 2 Escort.

WRC Victories

 #  Event Season Co-driver Car
1 Argentina 35th Rally Argentina 2015 Republic of Ireland Paul Nagle Citroën DS3 WRC
2 Portugal 50º Rally de Portugal 2016 Republic of Ireland Paul Nagle Citroën DS3 WRC

Results

WRC results

Year Entrant Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 WDC Points
2002 Kris Meeke Ford Puma S1600 MON SWE FRA ESP CYP ARG GRE KEN FIN GER ITA NZL AUS GBR
Ret		 NC 0
2003 Kris Meeke Opel Corsa S1600 MON
29		 SWE TUR
Ret		 NZL ARG GRE
Ret		 CYP GER FIN
Ret		 AUS ITA
Ret		 FRA ESP
19		 GBR
Ret		 NC 0
2004 Kris Meeke Opel Corsa S1600 MON
14		 SWE MEX NZL CYP GRE
Ret		 TUR
Ret		 ARG FIN
Ret		 GER JPN GBR
20		 ITA
16		 FRA NC 0
Citroën C2 S1600 ESP
25		 AUS
2005 Kris Meeke Citroën C2 S1600 MON
11		 SWE MEX NZL ITA
20		 CYP TUR GRE
26		 ARG FIN
39		 GER
14		 JPN FRA
25		 ESP
28		 AUS NC 0
Subaru Impreza WRC GBR
9
2006 Kris Meeke Citroën C2 S1600 MON SWE MEX ESP
19		 FRA
Ret		 ARG ITA GRE GER
16		 FIN
Ret		 JPN CYP TUR
20		 AUS NZL GBR
Ret		 NC 0
2007 Kris Meeke Subaru Impreza WRC MON SWE NOR MEX POR ARG ITA GRE FIN GER NZL ESP FRA JPN IRE
Ret		 GBR NC 0
2008 Kris Meeke Renault Clio S1600 MON SWE MEX ARG JOR ITA GRE TUR FIN GER
24		 NC 0
Interspeed Racing Team Renault Clio R3 NZL ESP
Ret		 FRA JPN GBR
2011 Mini WRC Team Mini John Cooper Works WRC SWE
 MEX
 POR
 JOR
 ITA
Ret		 ARG GRE FIN
Ret		 GER
Ret		 AUS FRA
Ret		 ESP
5		 GBR
4		 11th 25
2013 Abu Dhabi Citroën Total WRT Citroën DS3 WRC MON SWE MEX POR ARG GRE ITA FIN
Ret		 GER AUS
Ret		 FRA ESP GBR NC 0
2014 Citroën Total Abu Dhabi WRT Citroën DS3 WRC MON
3		 SWE
10		 MEX
Ret		 POR
Ret		 ARG
3		 ITA
18		 POL
7		 FIN
3		 GER
Ret		 AUS
4		 FRA
3		 ESP
19		 GBR
6		 7th 92
2015 Citroën Total Abu Dhabi WRT Citroën DS3 WRC MON
10		 SWE
7		 MEX
16		 ARG
1		 POR
4		 ITA
24		 POL
7		 FIN
17		 GER
12		 AUS
3		 FRA
4		 ESP
5		 GBR
2		 5th 112
2016 Abu Dhabi Total WRT Citroën DS3 WRC MON
Ret		 SWE
23		 MEX ARG POR
1		 ITA POL FIN GER CHN FRA ESP GBR AUS 7th* 26*

* Season still in progress.

JWRC results

Year Entrant Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Pos. Points
2003 Kris Meeke Opel Corsa S1600 MON
12		 TUR
Ret		 GRE
Ret		 FIN
Ret		 ITA
Ret		 ESP
2		 GBR
Ret		 14th 8
2004 Kris Meeke Opel Corsa S1600 MON
3		 GRE
Ret		 TUR
Ret		 FIN
Ret		 GBR
2		 ITA
7		 7th 19
Citroën C2 S1600 ESP
25
2005 Kris Meeke Citroën C2 S1600 MON
1		 MEX ITA
3		 GRE
6		 FIN
7		 GER
2		 FRA
8		 ESP
7		 3rd 32
2006 Kris Meeke Citroën C2 S1600 SWE ESP
3		 FRA
Ret		 ARG ITA GER
1		 FIN
Ret		 TUR
5		 GBR
Ret		 7th 20
2008 Interspeed Racing Team Renault Clio R3 MEX JOR ITA FIN GER ESP
Ret		 FRA NC 0

IRC results

Year Entrant Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 WDC Points
2009 United Kingdom Peugeot UK Peugeot 207 S2000 MON
Ret		 BRA
1		 KEN POR
1		 BEL
1		 RUS POR
5		 CZE
2		 ESP
2		 ITA
1		 SCO
DSQ		 1st 66
2010 United Kingdom Peugeot UK Peugeot 207 S2000 MON
Ret		 BRA
1		 ARG
Ret		 CAN
4		 ITA
Ret		 BEL
Ret		 AZO
2		 MAD
Ret		 CZE
4		 ITA
4		 SCO
3		 CYP
 3rd 39

Lurgan Park Rally Results

Year Car SS1 SS2 SS3 SS4 SS5 SS6 SS7 SS8 Position Time
2008 Ford Escort Mk II 19 18 20 15 17 15 12 15 17th 16.40.2
2012 Mini WRC 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1st 16.09.1

References

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External links

Sporting positions
Preceded by Intercontinental Rally Challenge Champion
2009		 Succeeded by
Juho Hänninen
Awards and achievements
Preceded by Autosport
Rookie of the Year
2009		 Succeeded by
Kamui Kobayashi
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