In a significant boost to the their hopes of lifting the British Rally Championship and the Irish Tarmac Rally Championship in the same year, Keith Cronin and Mikie Galvin have won the Jim Clark Rally, the third round of the British series, in the M O’Brien Group of Companies/Lyons Motor Group/Shane Casey Electrical Services Ford Fiesta Rally 2. While they have taken two victories at home so far in 2024, and head the Tarmac points table, troubled outings on the first two BRC rounds had left the Killarney and District Motor Club crew trailing in that series' standings. The triumph in the Scottish Borders has pushed them back into contention for the British title, with three further rounds yet to be completed. William Creighton and Liam Regan finished second in another Fiesta, 19.1 seconds behind Cronin and Galvin, making it an Irish one-two in the Duns based event. It is Cronin's third win on the Jim Clark, following previous successes in 2012 and 2022, and Galvin's second.
It was a difficult weekend for many of the other leading BRC contenders. Osian Pryce and Rhodri Evans, winners of the previous round in Wales, retired their Fiesta on Friday evening after it drowned out in a water splash. Chris Ingram and Alex Kihurani, who had won the opening round in Lancashire, were fastest on the first four stages, and opened up a lead of over twenty seconds. Cronin and Galvin then took fourteen back on the the fifth test, and the overnight gap stood at just 8.6 seconds. On Saturday's second stage, Ingram and Kihurani picked up a slow puncture and then hit a tree two corners from the end - they completed the Edrom test but suspension damage to their Volkswagen Polo GTi forced them to retire. Cronin and Galvin assumed the lead, and with a comfortable gap to Creighton and Regan, they managed their advantage to the finish. Others to hit trouble included Meirion Evans and Jonathan Jackson, who suffered power steering failure in their Toyota GR Yaris Rally 2, and James Williams/Ross Whittock, who punctured on Saturday evening and then retired their Hyundai i20N Rally 2 on Sunday morning, also as a result of power steering maladies.
The local crew of Euan Thorburn and Paul Beaton finished third overall in a Polo, but they are not registered for the BRC. Garry Pearson and Daniel Barrett took the third place points in their Fiesta, while it is the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy crew of Creighton and Regan who now lead the BRC standings, having finished second on all three rounds held to date.
"It's been a long time coming," said Cronin at the finish of the final stage. "The first two rounds didn't go our way, but championships are long, this gives us a fighting chance again. We needed this win. I didn't think it would be possible after the first loop yesterday, we got a wrong tyre call, but we went for a wet for the last loop and we seemed to make good time. It didn't feel like I was doing anything extra special, but everything was working very well in the car. Then unfortunately for Chris he went off this morning on the second stage, and that left us with a lead we just had to manage."
The British Championship crews will return to Scoland for the next round, the Grampian Forest Rally, in August. Before that, the attention of Cronin and Galvin will switch back to the Irish Tarmac series, which resumes with the Donegal International Rally on June 21st-23rd.
Keith Cronin and Mikie Galvin are supported by M 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. Their Ford Fiesta Rally 2 is prepared and run by Tom Gahan Motorsport.
