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.
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.
Eamonn'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 Impreza.
