Galvin comes seventh at Ypres Rally

Sean Moriarty

KILLARNEY co-driver Mikie Galvin scored the biggest result of his career with a seventh place finish on the legendary Ypres Rally in Belgium over the weekend.

Alongside fellow Killarney and District Motor Club member Bantrybased Keith Cronin, the local crew were the top British Championship runners in the series’ first visit to the Flemish classic, putting their title bid back on track.

Cronin is a three-time British champion, while the pair are the current Irish Tarmac Rally Champions. They are contesting this year’s BRC in an M-Sport run Ford Fiesta R5. Their Belgian result means they have moved into third place in the championship and have yet play their all-important double point-scoring joker round.

The Irish pairing mixed it with the best in Europe, finishing an impressive sixth in the overall event. World Rally Championship star Kevin Abbring and local co-driver Pieter Tsjoen were the overall victors in their Peugeot 208 T16 in an event that also included s host of French, Belgian and Italian stars.

The classic Ypres Rally marked the crucial halfway point in Britain’s premier rallying series. The opening three events were on gravel and the Belgian event provided the first sealed-surface taster of the season with the Tarmac specialists expected to come to the fore.

Cronin said: “It feels really good to win this tough event. We had a good fight with title rival Fredrik [Ahlin] until he went off and when that happened, that changed the whole approach to the rally. I was very cautious and stayed in the middle of the road and we got the result. It’s such a famous rally and to get a good result is brilliant. The British championship’s visit here has been a success. Coming into this round, we thought we were out of the championship challenge but now we are in a fighting chance and things are looking better.”

Meanwhile, Rob Duggan has withdrawn his entry from this weekend’s Rally Poland. The current British Junior champion is contesting selected rounds of the Junior World Rally Championship as part of his prize for winning last year’s Junior BRC title.

The Klllarney driver cited complications with the way the prize-drive is administered as the reason for his withdrawal and that he hopes to have to situation resolved in time for Rally Finland at the end of July.