Cronin and Galvin, the year so far

FEATURE: Cronin and Galvin’s year so far

By Paidraig Reddington

Killarney and District Motor Club members, Keith Cronin and Mikie Galvin, come to the Assess Ireland International Rally of the Lakes as leaders of the Samdec Security Irish Tarmac Rally Championship, having recorded victories in Galway and West Cork, and taken second place on the Circuit of Ireland.  They are also mounting a challenge for the 2024 British Rally Championship, but in contrast to their fortunes at home, things have not gone so smoothly for them across the water to date.   Here, we review each of the crew’s five rallies to date this year.

Galway International Rally

Having only taken delivery of a Ford Fiesta Rally 2 on the Thursday before the rally, allowing for just a brief test, Cronin and Galvin hit the ground running on Saturday morning, setting the fastest time on the opening stage. They were initially challenged by Sam Moffett and James O’Reilly, before Josh Moffett and Andy Hayes, on their first outing in a Citroën C3, drew level at the top of the leaderboard on stage two.  Thereafter the Cronin and Galvin 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.  Callum Devine and Noel O’Sullivan 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, and he and Galvin had a trouble free run to victory by 38.1 seconds.

West Cork Rally

St. Patrick’s Weekend saw Cronin and Galvin take a commanding victory on the West Cork Rally, finishing the event with a winning margin of 57.2 seconds, ahead of Matt Edwards and David Moynihan.  Devine and O’Sullivan had been the early pacesetters, and they led after the first four stages on Friday evening.  Cronin and Galvin overhauled them on Saturday morning, and they went on to set fastest time on six of the day’s eight tests, laying the foundations for the win.  Their herculean efforts in dreadfully wet conditions put them in a comfortable position, and they were able to manage their advantage throughout Sunday.  Devine and O’Sullivan lost two minutes with a puncture during the course of the Saturday stages, and later retired after damaging a wheel. 

North West Stages Rally

The first British Championship round of 2024 took placed on closed roads around Garstang, in Lancashire.  It proved to be a troubled outing for Cronin and Galvin.  They were second fastest on the opening stage, 5.9 seconds down on Chris Ingram and Alex Kihurani, with Osian Pryce and Rhodri Evans third, 5.8 seconds further back.  The second stage of the morning saw Cronin and Galvin pick up a puncture, and worse was to come on the following test when their Fiesta had a drivetrain issue.  Fortuitously for the KDMC men, stages four and five were cancelled following a number of accident-related stoppages during the course of the morning which caused running to be delayed, but the first stage after Service saw Cronin and Galvin encounter further difficulties.  The Fiesta’s launch control did not function, they had a spin, and the handbrake was also causing problems.  To add to their woes, the weather for the afternoon loop turned much wetter, when they had gambled on cut slicks.  They eventually finished seventh overall.  Ingram and Kihurani took the win from William Creighton and Liam Regan, while Pryce and Evans retired with a throttle issue.

Circuit of Ireland

A tactical tyre strategy on the part of Edwards and Moynihan helped them to a 14.4 second victory on Circuit of Ireland Rally over Cronin and Galvin.  The event saw the lead change over between the two top crews a couple of times during the course of the day.  Edwards and Moynihan headed the field after the opening stage, but only by .4 of a second from Cronin and Galvin, with Devine and O’Sullivan in third, seven seconds off the lead.  Cronin and Galvin went fastest on the second stage, by one second, to lead Edwards and Moynihan by .6, and then added 1.3 seconds to their advantage on the next test, while their rivals took back 1.7 on the fourth, to leave the gap at just .2 of a second heading to the mid-rally service in Dungannon.  Devine and O’Sullivan crashed out on a stage three.  While Cronin was to add 4.5 seconds to his lead on the fifth test, Edwards’ earlier decision to carry two spare wet tyres proved to be the correct one when the rain arrived ahead of stage six – the Welshman fitted them and went ten seconds faster than Cronin, to move into a lead he would not relinquish.  The penultimate test saw the rain ease but the roads remained wet in places, and Cronin remained on the back foot. The gap stood at eight seconds going into the final stage, and he opted to play the safer option and settled for second.

Severn Valley Stages Rally

The Severn Valley Rally marked the first foray of the year onto gravel for the BRC field, and the first outing on the loose for Cronin and Galvin in over twelve months.  Ingram and Kihurani were fastest on the opening stage, but Pryce and Evans then went quickest on the second and third tests, and moved into the lead.  Cronin and Galvin held third after stage two, six seconds behind the leading duo, who were separated by just .4 of a second at that point.  From there on, things began to unravel for the Killarney and District Motor Club crew.  They lost a place to Creighton and Regan on stage three, and then had a troubled fourth stage, suffering a spin and impacting with a log pulled out on the road by some of the earlier cars.  Following Service, the crews tackled three further stages in the afternoon.  The first of these saw Cronin and Galvin take second fastest time, 1.6 seconds off Creighton and Regan, who were quickest.  On stage six, Cronin and Galvin picked up a puncture, and lost seven minutes, having to stop and change the wheel.  This put paid to any prospect of a good result, and they finished the rally just outside of the top ten.  Pryce and Evans took a popular local victory, while Creighton and Regan finished second, ahead of Ingram and Kihurani.

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