The quest of Keith Cronin and Mikie Galvin to win the British Rally Championship and the Irish Tarmac Rally Championship in the same year is on the verge of entering a crucial phase, with a round of each series about to take place within a nine day period.
Following a two-and-a-half month break, the BRC reconvenes this weekend with the Voyonic Grampian Rally in Aberdeenshire, while the Ulster Rally, on the following Saturday, is a round of the Tarmac Championship. Cronin and Galvin had a poor start to the British season, with a variety of issues limiting their points haul on the opening two events, but they then won the Jim Clark Rally at the end of May in their M O’Brien Group of Companies/Lyons Motor Group/Shane Casey Electrical Services Ford Fiesta Rally 2, giving themselves “a fighting chance,” as Cronin put it, of staying in the 2024 BRC title hunt. The Killarney and District Motor Club crew previously took victory on the Grampian in 2022, the most recent occasion it formed part of the BRC season.
If Cronin is to win the British Championship this year, he will draw level with record holder, Jimmy McRae, on five titles, while it would be Galvin’s second triumph, he having previously guided Cronin during their victorious 2017 campaign. Only once have the British and Irish Tarmac crowns been secured by the same driver in one year, the previous occasion it occurred was in 1981, when the double victor was, again, Jimmy McRae.
William Creighton, a member of the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy, currently leads the 2024 BRC Driver standings on 57 points, having finished second overall on each of the three rallies held to date. Manchester’s Chris Ingram, winner of the opening round, is second on 43 points, with Cronin third on 36. While there has been an unusually large mid-season gap in the BRC calendar this year, the top three have not been idle. Creighton has been continuing his World Championship WRC2 campaign with rounds in Sardinia, Latvia and Finland, while Ingram and Cronin were out on the Nicky Grist Rally in Wales last month. Ingram, on his first drive in a Toyota GR Yaris, took the laurels on that occasion, ahead of Cronin.
“The aim on the Nicky Grist Rally was to get in some additional gravel running, there’s been only one forestry event so far this year in the BRC, and that was back in April, so it was no harm to get back in the zone,” said Cronin. “We tried some things on the car that day that worked, and some that didn’t work as well, so hopefully the lessons learned will be of help to us this weekend,” he added. “The next week will tell a lot about how the year might pan out for us, we might win both championships, or maybe one, or maybe none, we can only wait and see, a little luck as well as everything else will be required. I like the Grampian Rally, we won there a couple of years ago, so hopefully we can repeat that result this time around. After so many quiet weeks, it’s not really ideal for us that the two rallies are falling so close, it’s a lot of time together away from work and home, but that’s just the way it is, they’re part of two separate championships and there wouldn’t normally be two many crews doing both events. After Ulster there will be a couple of weeks to regroup before Rali Ceredigion, that will be two and a bit days on Welsh tarmac, I’m expecting that to be the hardest BRC round of the year.”
The Grampian Rally expands to a two-day format for 2024, with two stages, Hurlie Bog and Finglennie, taking place on Friday evening, before the field returns to Milton of Crathes for the overnight halt. Saturday sees the crews tackle seven further stages – Clatterin Kist, Whitehaugh, Durris, Drumtochty are followed by a repeat of Hurlie Bog and Finglennie, with Scare Hill providing the finale. The total competitive distance will be in the region of 57 miles. There will be two re-groups in Banchory during the course of the day, with the Ceremonial Finish also taking place there after 5pm.
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.
