Kris Meeke

Kris Meeke

Kris Meeke at the 2009 Rally Scotland
Personal information
Nationality	British
Born	(1979-07-02) 2 July 1979
World Rally Championship record
Active years	2002–present
Teams	Mini WRC Team
Rallies	38
Championships	0
Rally wins	0
Podiums	0
Stage wins	2
Total points	25
First rally	2002 Rally GB

Kris Meeke (born 2 July 1979) is a professional rally driver. He was the 2009 Intercontinental Rally Challenge champion. His current co-driver is Paul Nagle. 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.

For 2011, Meeke is competing in the World Rally Championship (WRC) driving a MINI for Prodrive. His first event was be 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.

Career

Meeke with a Citroën C2 S1600 at the 2005 Acropolis Rally.

Meeke, who was born in Dungannon, Northern Ireland, educated at The Royal School Dungannon, and later went on to study at Queen's University in 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. 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 Kris 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.

JWRC

The following year, Kris 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.

Kris 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 have a heavy crash and retire. There was further disappointment for Kris when during the last JWRC event in Wales he was plagued by electrical issues in his Opel Corsa. However a spirited drive saw him set seven fastest stage times and finish on the podium in second place.

IRC

Meeke in the Peugeot 207.

In 2009, Meeke alongside co-driver Paul Nagle contest the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC) in a Peugeot UK backed 207 S2000. 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. 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.

Kris starred in a wave of adverts for the Peugeot 207 in 2009, with the tagline "He's Meeke, but he's not mild".

For 2010, Meeke continued his successful partnership with Paul Nagle and Peugeot, competing in 10 rounds of the IRC.

WRC

On 2 September 2010, Autosport magazine announced that Meeke had signed for the Prodrive team that will run MINI World Rally Championship (WRC) return in 2011. Meeke scored his first WRC points and won the Power Stage at the 2011 Rally Catalunya. 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.

Meeke also 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 next month's Monte Carlo Rally in a crisis within the Prodrive-run team over budget for the 2012 season.

Lurgan Park Rally

Meeke won the 2012 Lurgan Park Rally in the McGeehan Motorsport Hire John Cooper Works Mini WRC. He won it on his first attempt. His previous entry to the rally of a Mk 2 Escort was only for the Mk 2 Escort challenge the rally hosts.

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

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	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	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

External links

• www.krismeeke.com

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