A hard earned victory for Keith Cronin and Mikie Galvin on the Ulster Rally in their M O’Brien Group of Companies/Lyons Motor Group/Shane Casey Electrical Services Ford Fiesta Rally 2, sees them extend their lead in the Irish Tarmac Rally Championship to fifteen points ahead of the final round in Cronin’s home county of Cork next month. Having taken the advantage on the second of the Newry-based event’s ten stages, they remained ahead thereafter and finished the Ulster with a margin of 15.4 seconds over the Skoda Fabia crew of Callum Devine and Noel O’Sullivan, who are now second in the Tarmac Championship standings following the retirement of early rally leaders, Matt Edwards and David Moynihan, who crashed out on stage three.
“It’s good to get the win, we had a good start to the championship but the last two rounds didn’t go great for us, it’s great to get the win here today,” said Cronin. “They were really tough stages, conditions were mixed, and on that last loop I didn’t think I’d have to push, but Callum started to push so we had to up it a bit again. I’m delighted with the result, they were some of the toughest stages you’d come across.” When asked what the victory meant for his Tarmac Championship hopes, Cronin remained cautious: “There’s so many anomalies in this sport, anything can happen. We needed a win, so that was a good win, but anything can happen on the next rally.”
Galvin, who previously won the Ulster with Cronin seven years ago, was also delighted with the outcome. “It’s nice to be back, we’ve had a bit of bad luck in the last few, the year started off so well, then we had a couple of events with bad luck, so it’s so nice to be back,” he told Daily Sport. “I never thought after being here in 2017 when we won it, to be back now in 2024 to win it again is super. It was a tough day, but really, really good.”
Josh Moffett and Andy Hayes finished in third place in their Citroen C3, ahead of Eddie Doherty and Tom Murphy (Skoda Fabia) in fourth.
The attention of Cronin and Galvin next turns to Rali Ceredigion in Wales in two weeks time, which is a round of both the British and European Rally Championships. “It counts for two rounds of the British Championship, but I won’t think about it for a day or two though, I’ll just enjoy this one,” said Cronin.