After making his first appearance last season behind the wheel of a VW Polo in the RallyX championship, Peter McGarry has confirmed that he will return to compete in the Open 2WD category.

Having secured two Top 8 finishes in 2025 across the six events he contested, the Irish driver did not enjoy the success he had hoped for, with several mechanical issues hindering his progress.

While those results allowed McGarry to lay the foundations of his RallyX programme, the Irishman had to contend with far-from-ideal conditions to fully express his potential.

“During the opening round in Portugal last year, we had a difficult weekend due to an intermittent issue that cut engine power. We thought we had identified the cause, but the problem reappeared at the next round in the Netherlands. The team eventually managed to fix it, which allowed me to put in some strong laps on Sunday,” explains McGarry.

Forced to wait until early August to return to RallyX action at the final round of the season, he could only manage 13th- and 9th-place finishes across the weekend’s two races — hardly enough to satisfy the Polo driver.

“When I returned to competition in Buxtehude, I hadn’t driven for several months and I was simply not on the pace. My driving wasn’t good enough, and I was especially disappointed for the team, who had made a big effort to be there. From that point on, I promised myself I wouldn’t come back to this level of competition without having done enough testing and mileage beforehand.”

Beyond the results, that first campaign ultimately served as the starting point for a broader reflection on how to approach a championship as demanding as RallyX. Far from rushing the process, McGarry is fully committed to a long-term development path.

“My decision to race in RallyX came after following the live broadcasts for a couple of seasons. I always knew that doing just a few rounds here and there wouldn’t satisfy me. So we planned for a learning year first, before aiming for results in the following seasons. I knew I would need time to gain experience on the circuits used in the championship, as they are very different from what I was used to. One season was never going to be enough for me. I’m a driver who learns progressively.”

Within that framework, the technical project built around the Volkswagen Polo now represents a key step forward. More than a simple upgrade, the car has undergone a comprehensive rebuild aimed at closing the gap to the front-runners.

“In my view, Open 2WD is a fantastic category because it allows for innovation, the exploration of new ideas and the use of modern technology, while still being based on proven rallycross concepts. The Polo is an excellent car and was very well built from the start. But over time, we had to rethink our direction to reduce the gap to the leading drivers. Stone Motorsport carried out a complete rebuild of the car over the winter, combining more traditional elements with modern components, and adding around 200 horsepower in the process.”

With those upgrades in place, McGarry is set to return to competition in the coming weeks at Valkenswaard with renewed confidence.

“We had been discussing the integration of the paddle-shift system developed by Henso for some time. It has already proven very effective on modified Irish rally cars, buggies and FC2 cars, so fitting it to the Polo felt like a natural step during the rebuild. I also tend to rely on the handbrake a bit too much at times, sometimes unnecessarily. Hopefully this system will allow me to keep both hands on the wheel more often,” he adds with a smile.

The next challenge will be to translate those technical improvements into on-track performance. On that front, McGarry is clear about one of his main areas for improvement: finding the right rhythm from the very start of each event.

“I need to learn how to get up to speed more quickly when arriving at race weekends. We now have a full season’s worth of onboard footage, as well as a significant amount of setup data. The goal is to use all of that to be immediately on pace from the very first sessions of each event.”

That will be all the more important given the increasingly competitive nature of RallyX South, where the level of the field is expected to reach new heights.

“The RallyX South championship will be extremely competitive, with a wide mix of cars and drivers. But one thing is certain: everyone will be fast. I’ll need to be at my very best if I want to get closer to the front. But I’m going to give it everything. I have no illusions about the level of competition in RallyX. We’ve built a good car — now let’s see what this season has in store for us.”