Cronin to debut Citroen in British Championship opener
A little later than expected, Keith Cronin's 2025 season will get under way on Sunday, when he and co-driver, Mikie Galvin, take the start of the East Riding Stages Rally in Yorkshire, the opening round of the British Championship. The event will see the Killarney and District Motor Club crew debut a new Citroën C3 Rally 2, having moved on from the Ford Fiesta which brought them victories on the Galway, West Cork, Jim Clark and Ulster rallies in 2024, and ultimately the Irish Tarmac Championship title.
Cronin's campaign had been due to commence with the Galway International Rally at the start of this month, before the Tarmac Championship opener fell victim to the effects of Storm Éowyn. "It would have been good to have had our first run out in the new car in Ireland, two days in Galway would have taught us a lot about it before we go to the East Riding Stages, even though the road surfaces will be quite different in Yorkshire. Hopefully Galway will get to run later in the year," said Cronin. "It means that our learning curve may be a bit steeper on Sunday, but that said, all the Rally 2 cars are built to fairly tight regulations, there aren't huge differences between them. We'll have done a couple of tests, plus Tom Gahan Motorsport will have experience of the set-up options for running the C3 on Michelin Tyres. I'm not setting any targets, but it would be important to get a good result this weekend if we're to have a chance of landing the British title at the end of the year. We had a dreadful start to the BRC in 2024, the first two events didn't go well at all, and we never recovered from it, so I'd be hoping that we'd get off on a better footing this time. We'll take it round by round and see how it all works out." The Jim Clark victory was the highlight of Cronin's British exploits over the course of last year, but a roll on Rali Ceredigion in September scuppered any chance of him landing a record-equalling fifth BRC title.
Cronin is not the only one of the leading BRC contenders in new machinery for 2025. With outgoing champion, Chris Ingram, moving on to a programme of international events, his place in the MEM Toyota team is taken by last year's runner-up, Will Creighton. Meirion Evans remains in the second MEM Yaris, while Junior World Champion, Romet Jurgenson of Estonia, takes the seat vacated by Crieghton at M-Sport Ford. "It'll be hard to beat Will in the Toyota, he was on the top pace all last year, and of course it's the car that won the championship with Chris," said Cronin. "We're all interested to see how Jürgenson gets on, he's the Junior World Champion, and he was selected as the FIA Rally Star Europe winner a couple of years before that. There will be others in the running too. Every British title is hard earned for whoever wins it out, and this year will be no different."
The East Riding Rally will consist of ten stages in all, with one Service during the day. The Ceremonial Start will take place in Beverley town centre at 9am. A loop of four stages follows, before the crews return to a FanZone in Beverley shortly before 11:30am, following which they enter Service at Bishop Burton College. Two runs through a short spectator stage at Westwood open the afternoon action, before the four stages from the morning are repeated. The top crews are due back in Beverley at around 3:20pm for the Finish Ramp celebrations.
Keith Cronin and Mikie Galvin are supported by M Group of Companies, Shane Casey Electrical Services, Michelin Tyres, Cronin’s Centra (Ballylickey, Union Hall, Leap, Millstreet and Dundrum), Cronin’s HomeValue Hardware, Daybreak Westlink, Cremin Coaches, Keohane Seafoods, Citroën Racing UK and Ireland, and Race and Rally Motorsport. Their Citroën C3 Rally 2 is prepared and run by Tom Gahan Motorsport.