BALLYLICKEY’S Keith Cronin and his Killarney co-driver Mikie Galvin are amongst four crews battling to claim the Probite British Rally Championship on Saturday’s Visit Conwy Cambrian Rally in North Wales, the final round of the series.
However, and unlike their participation in the recent Cork ‘20’ Rally, when they clinched a second Irish Tarmac Rally Championship for the second time in eight years, Cronin and Galvin’s task is formidable, to say the least. Cronin’s rivals in the legendary forests of North Wales appear in a far better championship position.
Without a victory in any of the six rounds thus far, Moira’s (County Down) William Creighton leads the series with 96 points - a single point ahead of Monaco-based former European Rally champion Chris Ingram. Cronin has a total of 75 points, the same as Welsh driver and former BRC champion Osian Pryce.
Cronin (38) acknowledges the position. ‘Our chances of taking the title are remote to say the least. It would require Will (Creighton), Chris (Ingram) and Osian (Pryce) to all have a really bad day in the office on the Cambrian, and thats not going to happen.’
Cronin has won the British Rally Championship on four previous occasions - 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2017. Only the legendary Jimmy McRae has won five - 1981, ’82, ’84, ’87 and ’88. The possibilities of Cronin successfully completing the ‘Drive for Five”’ are indeed remote but rallying, by its very nature, is fickle and anything can happen.
Familiarity with the stages is a key factor and Cronin really hasn’t that much knowledge of the stages like Elsi, Clocaenog, Brenig, and Alwen. While it is also very important seat time in the Tom Gahan Motorsport-prepared Ford Fiesta Rally2, Cronin revealed that he is already looking further ahead. ‘We're going really with a view towards 2025 or some other
year, so that we'll have a set of notes to work off if we return.’
Location is another factor. ‘It's only an hour or so from the ferry, so it's probably the easiest BRC round for us to get to,
in terms of travel.’ For a brief time during the last round, Rali Ceredigion (also in Wales) Cronin was in a strong position as Ingram went off the road and Creighton had lost time with punctures.
‘Yes, you could say if we had stayed on the road on the Sunday morning on Rali Ceredigion and we should have capitalised on Chris (Ingram) non-finishing.’ However, Cronin was a little more pragmatic. ‘In reality, we lost this championship at the start of the year. We had spins and punctures on the North West Stages and the Severn Valley Rally. I think we got only 10 points from those two rallies.’
He continued, ‘In a year as competitive as this has been and with three other strong contenders to take advantage when you have a poor outcome, you can't have results like that and expect to get away with it. I thought we might be able to turn it around during the season. But, it stayed (the championship) just out of reach.’ Nonetheless, it already been a great season for Cronin and Galvin with victories in the Galway International Rally, the Clonakilty Park Hotel West Cork Rally, and the Ulster Rally along with second place in the Circuit of Ireland and the Cork ‘20’ where they shadowed outgoing Tarmac champions Callum Devine/Noel O’Sullivan to win the series and the Fisher Perpetual Trophy.
Consistency in any championship is a key element and William Creighton’s performances underline this fact. He has yet to win a BRC round but second place in the opening three rounds has given him a strong foundation. Yet, it appears winning the BRC wasn’t part of his season’s plan. He selected the series in order to get seat time and experience ahead of a
strong programme in the WRC2 category of the World Rally Championship.
Of the championship-chasing quartet, he has probably the most seat time all season. Saturday’s event is his 14th rally of the season. To give the situation context, last August he competed in Rally Finland that consisted of some 305 stage kilometres - Saturday’s Cambrian Rally has 94 stage kilometres. Just last weekend he competed in the Central European Rally, the penultimate round of the WRC and finished ninth in the category. Creighton’s car is prepared and maintained by the M-Sport World Rally Team.
While Creighton has amassed 96 points, the series is based on the best five scores from seven rounds (the two day Rali Ceredigion counted as two rounds, a round per day). Creighton has finished all his events while Chris Ingram (Toyota GR Yaris) has two non- finishes. Creighton hasn’t used his “Joker” round as yet and that could be worth as many as five points, provided he is the top BRC finisher in the Cambrian. The points-scoring permutations are seemingly endless and with Saturday’s rally carrying points and a half, the situation is even more complex. Based on best four before adding
Cambrian points the situation is: Ingram 94 points, Creighton 83 points, Cronin and Pryce 74 points with a maximum of 38.5 points still available for all. Victory may not be enough for Creighton to become just the fourth Irish driver to win the
BRC and follow in the footsteps of Billy Coleman (1974), Keith Cronin, and Daniel McKenna
(2014).
The top 10 is as follows: 1. Tom Cave/Dale Furniss (VW Polo GTi R5); 2. Russ Thompson/Stephen Link (Mitsubishi Lancer E9); 3. Chris Ingram/Alex Kihurani (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2); 4. 4: Osian Pryce/Rhodri Evans (Ford Fiesta Rally2); 5. Keith Cronin/Mikie Galvin (Ford Fiesta Rally2); 6: William Creighton/Liam Regan (Ford Fiesta Rally2); 7: Garry Pearson/Daniel Barritt (Ford Fiesta Rally2); 8: Meirion Evans/Jonathan Jackson (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2); 9: Jonathan Greer/Niall Burns (Citroen C3 Rally2); 10: Matthew Hirst/Declan Dear (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2).
The event is based in Llandudno, the ceremonial start is on the Llandudno Promenade at 8am on Saturday morning following which the competitors will tackle four stages during the morning. Following a service break in Ruthin, a loop of three of the stages are repeated in the afternoon ahead of the finish ramp celebrations in Llandudno around 5.30pm.
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.
Meanwhile, this weekend’s Skibbereen and District Car Club’s multi-venue autotest that was scheduled to take place on Sunday has been cancelled due to the lack of a suitable and substitute second venue after the original two venues were unavailable.
