Keith Cronin and Mikie Galvin have taken a commanding victory in the West Cork Rally, round two of the 2024 Irish Tarmac Rally Championship, in the M O'Brien Group of Companies/Lyons of Limerick/Shane Casey Electrical Services Ford Fiesta Rally 2. They finished the event with a winning margin of 57.2 seconds, ahead of Matt Edwards and David Moynihan in second, who in turn had 29.2 seconds to spare over third placed William Creighton and Liam Regan. All of the top three crews were in Ford Fiestas.
Callum Devine and Noel O'Sullivan, had been the early pacesetters, and they led after the first four stages on Friday evening. Cronin and Galvin overhauled them on Saturday morning, and went on to set fastest time on six of the eight stages yesterday, pulling away from the rest of the field and laying the foundations for the win. Their herculean efforts in dreadfully wet conditions put them in a comfortable position, and they were able to maintain their advantage throughout Sunday. The victory puts them in a strong position at the top of the Tarmac Championship points table, having also won the opening round in Galway last month.
"It was a tough rally, the conditions yesterday were really tough. We got a good lead overnight which was great", said Cronin, who is only the fourth West Cork driver to win the event in its 47 year history. "I would like to thank all the marshals and organisers, especially for yesterday, I don't know how people stood out in that weather. It's a great result for us, great for the championship, but there's still a long way to go ", he added. "Today we were driving very much within ourselves, we had a big lead overnight, so we didn't need to push at all today, we just tried to manage the gap".
The Irish Tarmac Rally Championship reconvenes on Easter Saturday for the Circuit of Ireland, based in Dungannon, but before that, Cronin and Galvin will be among the starters for the North West Stages Rally, the first round of the British Rally Championship, which takes place next Friday and Saturday in Lancashire. "I didn't really think about it yet, to be honest I was concentrating on this event, so I must start planning for that tomorrow morning", said Cronin.
Galvin echoed Cronins remarks: "It's been a long weekend, a lot of stages to recce, it's a tough event. Yesterday was really tricky, just trying to keep it together. We got the jump on Saturday morning. Today was quite hard, trying to manage that lead, but I'm really happy to be here. The notes were good, the car was working fantastic. We're heading to the UK on Thursday for the first round of the British Championship, so it doesn't stop here. It's not easy, but we're very lucky to be doing it".
Keith Cronin and Mikie Galvin are supported by M O’Brien Group of Companies, Lyons Motor Group, Shane Casey Electrical Services, Molson Equipment, Pirelli, EARS Motorsport Ireland, Cronin’s Centra (Ballylickey, Union Hall, Leap, Millstreet and Dundrum), Cronin’s HomeValue Hardware, Westlink Service Station and Daybreak Shop, Cremin Coaches, Keohane Seafoods, M-Sport and Wurth Ireland.
