A hard earned victory for Keith Cronin and Mikie Galvin on the Ulster Rally in their M O’Brien Group of Companies/Lyons Motor Group/Shane Casey Electrical Services Ford Fiesta Rally 2.
The win sees them extend their lead in the Irish Tarmac Rally Championship to 15 points ahead of the final round in Cronin's home county of Cork next month.
Having taken the advantage on the second of the Newry-based event's 10 stages; they remained ahead thereafter and finished the Ulster with a margin of 15.4 seconds over the Skoda Fabia crew of Callum Devine and Noel O'Sullivan.
Devine and O’Sullivan are now second in the Tarmac Championship standings following the retirement of early rally leaders: Matt Edwards and David Moynihan, who crashed out on stage three.
"It's good to get the win" explained Cronin. "We had a good start to the championship but the last two rounds didn't go great for us, it's great to get the win here today".
“There's so many anomalies in this sport, anything can happen” explained Cronin, when asked what the victory meant for his Tarmac Championship hopes.
“We needed a win, so that was a good win, but anything can happen on the next rally”.
Josh Moffett and Andy Hayes took third place in their Citroen C3, ahead of Eddie Doherty and Tom Murphy (Skoda Fabia).
Cronin and Galvin’s attention next turns to Rali Ceredigion in Wales in two week’s time. A round of both the British and European Rally Championships.
“It counts for two rounds of the British Championship, but I won't think about it for a day or two though. I'll just enjoy this one” added Cronin.
