The Cork and Kerry duo of Keith Cronin and Mikie Galvin have taken second place on the Jim Clark Rally in the Scottish Borders, round two of the British Rally Championship. The rally was won by the World Championship crew of Adrien Fourmaux and Alexandre Coria, in the works M-Sport Ford Fiesta, who had nineteen seconds to spare over their Irish rivals in the final classification. The Frenchmen laid the foundations for their victory on Friday evening, being fast out of the blocks and setting a tremendous pace on both of the event’s opening two stages.
Cronin and Galvin were fastest of the BRC runners on five of Saturday’s six stages, but the gap to the leaders proved unsurmountable. Speaking at the finish, Cronin admitted that the result was in line with his expectations: “That was the best we could have hoped for starting the rally. I was kind of expecting that Adrien would get us all by a lot at the start, and he did”.
The British Championship’s next round is an ‘away’ event, the famous Ieper Rally in Belgium, and the host town is located just thirty minutes from Fourmaux’s home. “We’ll take the year rally by rally, I’m not sure if we’ll go to Ieper yet”, said Cronin. “It’s a long way to travel for us, we might wait for the one after”.
Euan Thorburn and Paul Beaton (Polo) finished third overall, ten seconds down on Cronin and Galvin, while Callum Black and Jack Morton were the third placed BRC registered runners to finish in their Fiesta.
Keith Cronin and Mikie Galvin’s British Rally Championship campaign is supported by Molson Group, M O'Brien Group of Companies, Michelin Tyres, Keohane Seafoods, Cremin Coach & Mini Bus Hire, Inver Energy, Cronin’s Homevalue Hardware, Cronin’s Centra (Ballylickey, Leap and Union Hall) and Westlink Service Station. Their Volkswagen Polo R5 is prepared and run by Tom Gahan Motorsport.
