West Cork driver, Keith Cronin and his Killarney co-driver, Mikie Galvin, survived late dramas to take second place on the Malcolm Wilson Rally, the opening round of the 2023 British Rally Championship. The power steering pump on their Volkswagen Polo GTi failed on the penultimate stage, but they were fortunate that there was a Service prior to the final test.
The Tom Gahan Motorsport crew replaced the system within the twenty minutes allotted time, allowing Cronin to head for the final stage through Greystoke forest without incurring any lateness penalties.
A trouble free run for the Irish crew over the closing 7.5 competitive miles saw them secure their runner-up place on the event, and take valuable points in their quest to take this year’s British Rally title. The Malcolm Wilson Rally was won by the French pairing of Adrien Fourmaux and Alexandre Coria in the works M-Sport Ford Fiesta Rally 2. They now head to Mexico where they will take part in the World Championship round next weekend. Elliott Payne and Tom Woodburn rounded out the Malcolm Wilson podium positions in another Fiesta.
With heavy snowfalls in the area over the previous couple of days, the rally organisers had taken the decision to shorten the route on safety grounds, cancelling the first three scheduled stages and deferring the start by an hour. The forestry roads were still icy in places, with all the leading drivers reporting varying levels of grip.
The Welsh crew of James Williams and Dai Roberts led after the opening stage, but Fourmaux and Coria took command from there on, while Williams and Roberts lost time with a puncture.
Cronin and Galvin were third fastest on the opener, but they then caught the Rally 1 Ford Puma of Jourdan Serderidis and Grégoire Munster on stage two and were delayed by a half minute or so, before taking fastest time on the third. However, the power steering woes were to scupper any chance of fighting for the win.
Cronin was happy with the result, in view of the mechanical scare, and the earlier time loss: “We would have been there or thereabouts only for catching the car on the second stage, and then obviously we had the power steering problem after that. It’s really good to have the World Championship guys here and to be on pace with them when things were going well, and some of the other guys were as well, so that was good. It was really tricky, especially on the first pass, you were kind of guessing where the ice was, but we got through it. It’s a good result, Adrien has probably done more rallying this year than we will do all year. It’s our first rally in six months, hopefully we can keep it going and get to the next one and see from there”.
Eamonn Kelly wasn’t enjoying the conditions over the morning stages and lacked the confidence to push, but took seventh in his Polo with Conor Mohan on the notes, ahead of Hugh Bruton and Drew Sturrock.
In the classes, Johnnie Mulholland gave the Fiesta Rally3 its BRC debut and despite a snapped alternator belt, ensured he and Eoin Treacy brought home the category silverware. Meanwhile Steve Waugh and Mark Broadbent’s British Rally Championship debut went their way with a BRC4 finish in their Fiesta R2T.
The Junior British Rally Championship battle was just as intense over the opening stage, with just three seconds separating the rapid youngsters. Kyle White was out front in the Peugeot 208 Rally4 and there he would stay for the duration of the event as he and co-driver Sean Topping took the second Junior win of their careers.
Even a broken shock absorber on the Peugeot couldn’t stop them and despite last year’s Academy Trophy Champion Kyle McBride firing in two fast stage times in the closing stages, White could not be caught.
McBride and Liam McIntyre took the runner up spot in their Fiesta Rally4 whilst Casey Jay Coleman and Adam Coffey rounded out the podium spots.
Now the British Rally Championship switches its focus to asphalt and the first of four back to back asphalt events, as the Jim Clark Rally in May takes crews to the rapid closed road stages of the Scottish Borders.
Keith Cronin and Mikie Galvin are supported by M O’Brien Group of Companies, Molson Group, Keohane Seafoods, Inver Energy, Cremin Coaches, Cronin’s Homevalue Hardware, Cronin’s Centra (Ballylickey, Leap and Union Hall), Westlink Inver Service Station and Michelin Tyres. Their Volkswagen Polo GTi R5 is prepared and run by Tom Gahan Motorsport.
.jpeg)
