Kris Meeke

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Kris Meeke (born 2 July 1979) is a Northern Irish professional rally driver, best known for competing in the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC).

He was the 2009 Intercontinental Rally Challenge champion.

His co-driver is United Kingdoms Seb Marshall.

He 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.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.

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Career

Meeke, the son of rally engineer Sydney Meeke, was born in Dungannon, Northern Ireland, and educated at the Royal School Dungannon. He went on to study at Queen's University, Belfast, where he obtained a degree in mechanical engineering. He began working with M-Sport as a computer aided designer. In 2000, he took his first steps back to rallying when he won a Peugeot competition for new rally drivers.

His debut event, the Bulldog Rally in North Wales, was held, and he was even in charge of the event for a short time. On the third round of the 2001 Peugeot Super 106 Cup, the Swansea Bay Festival National Rally, with mixed results. Meeke's career was boosted when he was taken under the care of late Colin McRae and competed in a Ford Puma in early 2002. Meeke won in his class in the Scottish Rally in June after a calculated drive led by McRae, and finished second on the Jim Clark Rally, his first complete tarmac event. Meeke's third place in the final round of the competition was nevertheless enough for him to win the British Junior Rally Championship trophy in his second season in the sport, as well as third in the British S1600 series.

Meeke's driver, an Opel Corsa sponsored by Team Palmer, progressed to the Junior World Rally Championship (JWRC) the following year. On two of the final leg stages, he made an impressive debut, but a string of minor challenges pulled Meeke down. After a disaster, he resigned in the next stage and there was a possibility of a second-place finish in Italy. He received consolation shortly after winning the British S1600 championship. Meeke was running in 2nd place in the JWRC and in 17th position overall before being forced to withdraw after crashing a brick and rolling his car.

Meeke started the 2004 season off by finishing third 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. Mechanical difficulties on the uneven gravel roads interrupted the next two JWRC events in Greece and Turkey. In Tampere, he then participated in the Pirelli Rally as a shakedown for the upcoming JWRC event in Finland, scoring a class victory in Pirelli Rally. He was in charge of a Finnish JWRC tournament before a mistake caused him to crash and crash. With a spirited drive, he set seven fastest stage times and finished in second place on the podium.

Meeke and co-driver Paul Nagle competed in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC) in 2009, a Peugeot UK-backed 207 S2000 race managed by the Belgian Kronos Racing team. He died early on the Monte Carlo Rally, but he continued to win the next three rounds, including Brazil, Portugal, and Belgium. After his nearest rival Jan Kopecky crashed on the second stage, he won the championship in the penultimate round by winning Rally Sanmo in Italy.

Meeke won the inaugural Rally Scotland for the first time in history, winning 7 out of the 13 stages on the way to victory. In 2009, he appeared in a series of Peugeot 207 commercials, with the tagline "He's Meeke," but not insignificant." Meeke's 2010 appearance in ten rounds of the IRC continued his fruitful collaboration with Paul Nagle and Peugeot.

Meeke had signed for the Prodrive team that would compete in the MINI World Rally Championship (WRC) in 2011 on September 2, 2010, according to Autosport magazine. At the 2011 Rally Catalunya, Meeke earned his first WRC points and won the Power Stage. Meeke came close to winning his second podium appearance at the end of the season's 2011 Rally GB, but the Power Stage took third place, allowing Henning Solberg to take third place.

Meeke appeared on an episode of Top Gear on the BBC, a challenge similar to Henning Solberg's drive of a rally car against the Norwegian Olympic Bobsleigh team. Meeke rallied a Mini John Cooper Works WRC in a competition against skeletonist Amy Williams at the Lillehammer Olympic Bobsleigh and Luge Track. Williams raced down the bobsleigh track, while Meeke's route went downhill alongside. Meeke ran 59.73 in the Mini, defeating Williams who finished in 1:01.04.

Meeke was suspended from the Mini WRC Team for the following month's Monte Carlo Rally in Prodrive, France, after the 2012 season was cut.

Meeke departed from the WRC in 2013 Rally Finland as a stand-in for Khalid Al Qassimi.

Meeke was comfortably in fifth position and on his WRC return, earning over 200 points on his WRC return before starting to roll in the last section of the rally's penultimate stage. Meeke will ride a Citron DS3 WRC in September 2013, replacing works driver Dani Sordo. Meeks finished seventh in the standings in 2014, finishing his first full season in the Citron team, a record breaking feat. He stayed with Citron for 2015 alongside Mads Ostberg, with Sebastian Loeb also joining him in Monte Carlo. He came in 10th in Monte, winning three stages in the rally and the power stage among them. He won his maiden ride in Argentina, snapping a 13-year drought of British winners of a WRC event. Colin McRae, the 1995 World Champion who aided him during his career until McRae's death in a helicopter crash in 2007. Meeke ranked 5th in the standings at the end of the 2015 season, just behind teammate Mads Ostberg with 112 points to his name. Meeke will have a three-year deal with Citron until the end of 2018.

Meeke will only compete in eight rounds in the 2016 season to concentrate on the production of the Citron C3 WRC, which will be released in 2017. Meeke won two rallies in 2016 in Portugal and Finland, the former establishing a record for the fastest average speed in a WRC rally. Kris Meeke became the first driver from the United Kingdom to win the legendary and fast Rally Finland. Meeke had hoped that his 2016 schedule would prepare him to challenge for the 2017 title.

Meeke's first two rounds of 2017 were frustrating, with him losing in Monte Carlo and finishing 12th in Rally Sweden. Despite a mistake in the final kilometer, Meeke won in Rally Mexico. With a 37.2 second lead over Sébastien Ogier, he had a chance to return to the Power Stage, but he lost track on a fast right hander, ending up in a parking garage. Meeke regained control of the stage after a gap in a hedge, limiting his lead to 13.8 seconds.

Meeke was leading the Tour de Corse next rally, but she was forced to pull meek from the lead due to a mechanical breakdown on the Novella stage. Meeke retired from Rally Argentina after about Rally Argentina. He rolled his C3 twice along the route of the rally, one of the few times the car was rolling 14 times, which he referred to as "the largest." Andreas Mikkelsen was sent to Rally Poland, which team principal Yves Matton described as being "in the best interests of the team." Meeke returned to Rally Finland but fell for a sense of pride and eventually finished eighth, though teammate Craig Breen challenged for a podium. On Thursday evening, a meteor shower was followed by a blast, destroying any hopes of scoring points. He eventually had to leave on day 2 due to a mechanical malfunction. However, Meeke took the lead from Andreas Mikkelsen on the second day and then pushed the field to win their second game of the season.

Meeke was retained by Citron for the 2018 championship and was the only Citron driver scheduled to compete in all thirteen rallies. However, following a string of injuries, the team suspended him from his service after six rounds. Pierre Budar, the team's chief, was critical of the "excessively high" number of accidents that occurred when Meeke took "unjustified risks" considering his position at the time of the accidents.

Meeke will drive the Toyota Yaris World Rally Car on October 17, 2018, according to Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT.

Meeke confirmed he was leaving Toyota on November 27, 2019.

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