Keith Cronin and Mikie Galvin will resume their challenge for the Probite Brakes British Rally Championship when they line up on Saturday for the Carlisle Stages Rally, which forms the second round of the series. The event has been organised in a remarkably short time-frame of just three months by the Roger Albert Clark Rally Motor Club, and takes the place of the Severn Valley Rally, which had to be cancelled due to the damage caused to the Welsh forests by Storm Darragh. The BRC field will instead battle through five stages in Northumberland’s Kielder Forest, the scene of many World Championship battles over past decades. For Cronin and Galvin, the Carlisle event marks the start of a particularly busy portion of the season, with it being the first of three rallies on their schedule over four weekends.
Once the Carlisle event is completed , Cronin and Galvin will turn their attention back in the direction of the NAPA Auto Parts Irish Tarmac Rally Championship, as the Circuit of Ireland will get underway just six days later, on Good Friday. Two weeks after that, the Killarney and District Motor Club crew will be among the Tarmac Championship front runners taking on their own club’s event, the Rally of the Lakes. “It will be a quick turnaround after Carlisle to get the car sorted for the Circuit, hopefully we won’t give the Tom Gahan Motorsport lads anything extra to do except to convert it from gravel to tarmac spec,” said Cronin.
The first British championship round of the year, the East Riding Rally in Yorkshire, saw Cronin and Galvin finish second on what was their debut in the M O’Brien Group of Companies/Shane Casey Electrical Services Citroën C3 Rally 2. William Creighton and Liam Regan took the victory laurels on that occasion, and Cronin is wary of the threat they will pose this weekend. “They went very well in Yorkshire, and it was their first rally in the Toyota Yaris,” said Cronin. “If we’re to make a fight of it, we can’t afford to let them get too far ahead early in the season. If they win again on Saturday, it will be hard to pull that back over the rest of the year.”
In advance of the trip to Carlisle, Cronin and Galvin entered, and won, the Carlow Forestry Rally, a round of the Motorsport Ireland Forestry Championship, which took place a couple of weeks ago. “We hadn’t been out on a gravel rally since October, so it was important to get familiar with it again,” said Cronin. “Doing a rally is always of greater value in that regard than a day’s testing. We tried a few things with the car which we would hope to benefit from in the BRC, even though what works in Irish forests doesn’t always transfer perfectly to England, Scotland or Wales, but there was actually no other forestry rally taking place in the UK that we could enter in the few weeks between the West Cork Rally and the Carlisle event,” he added.
Fifty competitive miles await the crews taking part in the Carlisle Stages, with the first test due to get underway shortly before 9am. “There are only five stages altogether, but four of them are longer than many you would get on other BRC rounds, ten miles and twelve miles,” noted Cronin. “Tyre wear could be an issue, especially early in the day, as there are three stages before the first service, that’s 26 miles in total. It could be a balancing act between pace and preservation,” he added. “There is a Service before both stages four and five, so it shouldn’t be an issue over the last two”. The rally is due to be completed by the leading runners just before 2pm, with the champagne celebrations due to take place at the scenic Kielder Castle a short time later.
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, and Race and Rally Motorsport. Their Citroën C3 Rally 2 is prepared and run by Tom Gahan Motorsport.
Carlisle Stages Rally 2025
Top Ten Seeds:
1. William Creighton/Liam Regan, Toyota GR Yaris Rally 2
2. Keith Cronin/Mikie Galvin, Citroën C3 Rally 2
3. James Williams/Ross Whittock, Hyundai i20N Rally 2
4. Callum Black/Jack Morton, Ford Fiesta Rally 2
5. Elliott Payne/Patrick Walsh, Ford Fiesta Rally 2
6. Meiron Evans/Dale Furniss, Toyota GR Yaris Rally 2
7. Romet Jürgenson/Siim Oja, Ford Fiesta Rally 2
8. James Ford/Neil Shanks, Citroën C3 Rally 2
9. Max McRae/Cameron Fair, Citroën C3 Rally 2
10. Matthew Hirst/Declan Dear, Skoda Fabia R5
Carlisle Stages Rally 2025
Timetable
Saturday 12th April
Start Control: H&H Borderway Mart, Carlisle, 08:01
Stage 1: Ash Park, 08:52
Stage 2: Kershope, 09:14
Stage 3: Buck Fell 1, 10:20
Service In: Greenside, 10:42
Service Out/Regroup In: Mounces, 11:22
Regroup Out: Mounces, 11:32
Stage 4: Chirdonhead, 12:05
Service In: Greenside, 12:28
Service Out/Regroup In: Mounces, 13:08
Regroup Out: Mounces, 13:18
Stage 5: Buck Fell 2, 13:36
Podium Ceremony: Kielder Castle, 14:09
(NB – Spectators are asked not to attend the service area in Kielder Forest, as there is no parking area available).
