(Keith Cronin & Mikie Galvin courtesy of Kevin O’Driscoll)
(Callum Devine and Noel O'Sullivan courtesy of Kevin O’Driscoll)
(Keith Cronin & Mike Galvin, Joe Donoghue (Galway Motor Club) & David Glynn (Corrib Oil) (courtesy of James Burke))
Keith Cronin and Killarney's Mikie Galvin have won the Galway International Rally, in the Lyons Motor Group/Shane Casey Electrical Services/M O’Brien Group Ford Fiesta Rally 2, by 38.1 seconds from Callum Devine and Noel O'Sullivan, also Kerry, in a Volkswagen Polo R5. The event marked former title holder Cronin's return to the Irish Tarmac Rally series, having spent recent years taking part in rounds of the British Championship, and it was also his first event in the latest version of the Fiesta Rally 2.
Cronin, who previously won in Galway in 2013, set the fastest time on the opening stage on Saturday, being initially challenged by Sam Moffett in a Hyundai. Josh Moffett, on his first outing in a Citroen C3 Rally 2, then drew level with Cronin at the top of the leaderboard on stage two, but thereafter the Cork driver put in a couple of remarkable times, faster by eight and six seconds on two of the afternoon stages to establish a useful buffer to the rest of the field. Devine took up the chase with an aggressive tyre choice on Saturday afternoon, setting a couple of fastest times to leave the overnight gap at fifteen seconds.
Sunday morning saw Cronin make full use of his talents in the very wet conditions to pull away from the opposition, and he and Galvin had a trouble free run to victory. "I haven't entered a rally in Ireland at this level in a good few years, I haven't been doing that much rallying in general. I definitely didn’t expect to arrive here and win. I was hoping to get a podium at best, but to get the win, it's just fantastic", said a delighted Cronin at the end of the final stage. "The car just clicked straight away, we got the tyre choice right early, the Pirellis worked well, we used the same type of tyre all weekend. It worked in all the mix of conditions, so we're very happy", he added. "It's been a great weekend from the very get go really. It all came together very late, the car didn't get here until Thursday, so it was all a bit last minute, but we got a run in the car Thursday, it felt good straight away. On Saturday morning we were fastest on the first stage and we just kept it going from there. The pace was hot, we were pushing on, especially on Saturday. We were leading overnight, then pushed for the stages first thing this morning and just managed it from there. In any sport you have to get a good feeling in what you are doing, especially in rallying, and it felt easy enough today from the driving, but even if you're not going quicker you're still pushing really hard. This rally worked for us but another time one of the other guys will be leading from start to finish, but this one worked for us".
The Tarmac Championship moves on next to Cronin's home ground and the West Cork Rally on St. Patrick's weekend. "It's a few weeks away, it'll be a completely different rally to here, this is always notoriously tricky and slippy. West Cork will be faster, drier hopefully - well, I don't know about hopefully, the wet seems to suit me. We'll work on set up and all that, we got the set up good here, so hopefully we can do the same for West Cork", he remarked.
Behind Devine and O'Sullivan, Josh Moffett and Andy Hayes took the final place on the Galway podium. They had been fending off a late charge from Desi Henry and Stuart Loudon in another Citroen, but the matter was settled when the latter crew had a couple of moments on the final stage.
Keith Cronin and Mikie Galvin are supported by Lyons Motor Group, Shane Casey Electrical Services, M O’Brien Group of Companies, 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, Molson Equipment, M-Sport and Wurth Ireland.
