The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
The first round of the Irish tarmac rally championship, the Safety Direct Galway International Rally, took place last Sunday over eight stages in the Ballinasloe area.
Cork driver Keith Cronin took the lead on the sixth special stage in his recently acquired Subaru Impreza WRC and went on to win the rally by 13.8 seconds from the Mini WRC of Eugene Donnelly/Mark Kane. Donegal brothers Declan and Brian Boyle (Subaru WRC) finished third.
This is the first time a Cork driver has won the Galway Rally since Billy Coleman won it back in 1986, the year Keith Cronin was born. The Group N category was won by Alan Ring/Adrian Deasy in their Mitsubishi.
The historic section winners were Limerick’s James O’Mahony/Kerrie Barry in their Volvo 144 while the junior section winners were Richard Moore/Paul Twomey in their Honda Civic.
The top Clare Motor Club crew to finish the rally were Michael Fitzgibbon from Darragh with Ennis man Charlie McEnery calling the pacenotes in their Honda Civic. Fitzgibbon finished third in the junior section of last year’s Galway rally but moved up to the very competitive Class 11 for this year’s event. The Clare crew found conditions very slippy and with the timing belt coming off on special stage five and heated screen problems with the windscreen fogging up on stage six, the crew eventually went on to finish 18th overall in the national section and fourth in their class.
Other Clare crews who featured in the awards included Tommy Flanagan/Sean Burke (Escort), who finished 24th overall in the national section and were the winners in Class 12; Keith Naughton/Brendan Behan (Subaru) finished 25th overall in the national section and second in Class 20. Anthony Breen/Mark O’Looney (Subaru) finished 29th overall and fourth in Class 20
