Two Kerrymen will be seeded 1st and 2nd for this weekend Nicky Grist Rally, which is the next round of the British Rally Championship
As the current leaders of the British Rally Championship, Keith Cronin and Kerry's Mikie Galvin are seeded at Number 1 for Saturday’s Nicky Grist Rally, based in the Powys market town of Builth Wells. Fresh from a win on the Moonraker Rally in Cork last weekend, they will lead the BRC field away in their Volkswagen Polo GTi, to tackle eight stages, totalling 44 competitive miles.
Killarney man Noel O Sullivan will be seeded 2nd, as he calls the notes for Osian Price.
Full press release by Padraig Reddington
As the current leaders of the British Rally Championship, Keith Cronin and Mikie Galvin are seeded at Number 1 for Saturday’s Nicky Grist Rally, based in the Powys market town of Builth Wells. Fresh from a win on the Moonraker Rally in Cork last weekend, they will lead the BRC field away in their Volkswagen Polo GTi, to tackle eight stages, totalling 44 competitive miles, over the famous Epynt Ranges, and Halfway and Crychan forest complexes. The Welsh event marks the championship’s first loose surface gravel outing of the year, the first couple of rounds having been held on closed public roads in Essex and Scotland.
Second away from the Builth Wells start will be Osian Pryce and Noel O’Sullivan, also in a Polo, which will carry the number 100 to mark the occasion of Pryce’s one hundredth rally. They in turn will be followed by Elliot Payne and Patrick Walsh in a Ford Fiesta, with James Williams and Dai Roberts, who currently lie second in the championship standings, next away in an Hyundai i20.
Having recorded a second place finish on the Rally Tendring & Clacton, and victory on the Jim Clark Rally, Cronin and Galvin hold a ten point advantage at the head of the BRC leaderboard, but Cronin remains cautious about their prospects on Saturday. “I don’t expect it to be easy at all, the Welsh forests are always an ‘away fixture’ for us, even though we’ve been there many times before,” said Cronin. “I know Osian will certainly be very strong there, James Williams has come on very much this season, and Elliot Payne won the Kielder Forest Rally a couple of weeks ago, he’s one to watch too. Hopefully we’ll be in the shake up with them”.
With there having being a nine month interval since the Killarney & District Motor Club crew last tackled a loose surface event, they entered last Saturday’s Moonraker Rally, a round of the Irish Forest Rally championship, to blow away the cobwebs and gather additional data regarding the optimum set-up options for the Polo. They were fastest on seven of the event’s eight stages. “I’m glad we had the opportunity of doing the Moonraker to get back into the zone for gravel,” related Cronin. “It went well for us, obviously, it was nice to get the win on home ground, but it was also very useful for trying different settings and springs. The format was ideal for that in so far as we did two stages, and then repeated the same two, so it was perfect for comparison. There were two different stages then in the afternoon. Hopefully the work we did will pay off on the Nicky Grist, but you never know until you get there, what suits in Ireland may not always translate in Wales. You might say gravel is gravel, but there can be differences in the type of grading used in the forests sometimes, and the car can behave quite differently as a result.”
With some of the Historics and smaller class cars running first on the road, the BRC crews will enter stage one of the Nicky Grist Rally from 09:20am.
The British Rally Championship campaign of Keith Cronin and Mikie Galvin is supported by M O’Brien Group of Companies, Keohane Seafoods, Inver Energy, Cremin Coaches, Cronin’s HomeValue Hardware, Cronin’s Centra and Pirelli Tyres.
2022 Nicky Grist Rally – FCD Timetable
Saturday 9th July, 2022
Start Strand Street, Builth Wells 08:31
SS1 Llyn Login 1 08:52
SS2 Monument 1 09:16
SS3 Halfway 1 09:37
SS4 Crychan 1 10:11
Regroup Strand Street, Builth Wells 11:16
Service Builth Wells RFC 11:35 – In
12:35 – Out
SS5 Llyn Login 2 12:56
SS6 Monument 2 13:20
SS7 Halfway 2 13:41
SS8 Crychan 2 14:15
Finish Groe Park, Builth Wells 15:20
2022 Nicky Grist Rally - Top Ten Seeds
No. Driver/Co-Driver Car
1. Keith Cronin/Mikie Galvin Volkswagen Polo GTI R5
100. Osian Pryce/Noel O'Sullivan Volkswagen Polo GTI R5
2. Elliot Payne/Patrick Walsh Ford Fiesta Rally 2
3. James Williams/Dai Roberts Hyundai i20 R5
4. Garry Pearson/Dale Furniss Ford Fiesta Rally 2
5. Ruairi Bell/Max Freeman Skoda Fabia R5
6. Tom Llewellin/Ross Whittock Ford Fiesta Rally 2
7. Matthew Hirst/Declan Dear Ford Fiesta R5
8. Stephen Petch/Michael Wilkinson Ford Fiesta R5
9. Perry Gardener/Jack Bowen Ford Fiesta R5
2022 British Rally Championship Points
Drivers: Keith Cronin, 43; James Williams, 33; Osian Pryce, 25; Elliot Pryce, 22; Garry Pearson, 18.
Co-Drivers: Mikie Galvin, 43; Dai Roberts, 33; Noel O’Sullivan, 25; Dale Furniss, 15; Tom Woodburn 12.
