Late puncture denies Cronin and Galvin victory in Ypres Rally

A puncture on the final stage robbed Keith Cronin and Mikie Galvin of a British Rally Championship victory on last weekend’s Ypres Rally in Belgium.

The Hyundai i20 R5 crew were a class act all weekend and led the BRC runners from the second stage. Run in the Flanders region, it is considered the biggest rally in Europe outside of the World Rally Championship.

The Killarney and District Motor Club crew can be justifiably proud of their performance over the weekend, even mixing times with current WRC leader and local expert Thierry Neuville. But motorsport is a fickle game and one small misfortune can cost dearly and the final stage puncture robbed them of a championship win.

In the end, they finished tenth overall, third in the BRC section, despite overcoming collisions with lampposts and falling off the road into dykes, such was the frantic pace of this incredibly difficult rally.

The pair are chasing back-toback British titles, while Cronin is hoping to record a record equalling fifth championship.

Crucially, their main rivals Matt Edwards and Darren Garrod took their second win in as many outings. Despite their bad luck Cronin and Galvin have moved into second in the championship but are now 20 points behind Edwards with the Ulster Rally in August next up.

Raven’s Rock Rally

In what was a huge weekend for Cronin Motorsport, with Keith’s brother Daniel and his Faha co-driver Shane Buckley winning Sunday’s Raven Rock Rally in Waterford driving their Ford Fiesta R5.

The rally also marked the return of Alan Ring who has been on the side-lines since a big crash on the Stonethrowers Rally in Tipperary two years ago.

The Killarney man drove his new Fiesta R5 as course car on Sunday’s event using the occasion to get some high-speed miles ahead of a fulltime return to the sport later in the season.

Croft Ginetta Juniors

Lorcan Hanifan marked his switch from Clio Juniors to Ginetta Juniors at his home track at Croft in the North of England on Sunday by finishing with three strong results.

Son of Tralee man Dermot, Hanifan elected to switch to the Ginetta series for several reasons, dwindling grids in the Renault series meant a lack of competition, the Ginetta series runs off the back of the British Touring Car package meaning higher-profile meetings and the sports cars series provides a direct ladder of opportunity into the British GT series and other internationally recognised sports car championships.

He finished 17th in first race but improved that to 12th in race two and by the end of the third race he found himself in eighth position, showing a steady increase in pace over the course of the weekend and leaving the venue with a positive outlook to the future.