Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy member Eamonn Kelly claimed a debut FIA European Historic Rally Championship win in San Remo over the weekend.
Driving the same BMW E30 M3 that he drove to victory on last month’s Eurol Hellendoorn Rally, the Junior World Rally Championship event winner had the experienced Gordon Noble on the notes.
They took the category lead in the rain-soaked Saturday stages and maintained that overnight advantage through the closing leg of San Remo Rally Storico on Sunday to take victory ahead of fellow BMW M3 crew Maciej Lubiak and Grzegorz Dachowski.
Leading the FIA EHRC runners on the Italian Tarmac event by 5.9s following the five stages that ran on Saturday, Kelly edged 14.5s ahead by winning Sunday’s opening run, the 14.23-kilometre Vignai test and held on to the finish.
Round eight of the 2024 FIA EHRC, the ultimate celebration of rallying’s glorious past, took place in wet and dry conditions and was another action-packed affair with Kelly becoming the sixth different winner of a standout season.
“Overall, it was a really good race, we were pretty consistent and didn’t make too many mistakes,” said Kelly.
“Saturday was very tricky, we may be made some wrong tyre choices [for the conditions], which cost us a lot of time. But we kept going and today was much better. When we made the right tyre choices our times were good and the flow was really nice. The car was working well also.”
“It was an amazing event, the stages are iconic and when the weather is not too bad it’s really, really nice. Overall, it was a really good challenge.”
“We had no expectations coming here but of course when you come to somewhere as iconic as San Remo and you’re stood in front of the casino on the top step of the podium it’s a pretty cool feeling.”
“I’m very lucky to have been doing it. Thank you to my sponsors, especially JKC BMW in Ireland and Michael Cullen who lent me the car for this rally. Without that offer I wouldn’t have been here so I’m really happy for that.”
Kelly’s father Donagh and co-driver Rory Kennedy finished in sixth place (out of the FIA EHRC registered competitors) and tenth overall in another BMW.
Ray Breen and Damien Morrisey, although not registered for the FIA EHRC, were ninth overall in their Subaru Legacy.
Photos By Joe Corcoran and Rally San Remo
Words by Sean Moriarty, additional reporting on San Remo Rally by Richard Rodgers.
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