The Irish Tarmac Rally Championship kicked off in the west when four-time British Rally Champions Keith Cronin and Mikie Galvin were the impressive winners of the 2024 Corrib Oil Galway International Rally.

The West Cork native and his Killarney based co-driver had a comfortable 38.1 seconds to spare over current Tarmac Championship title holders Callum Devine and Noel O’Sullivan in their VW Polo R5. Josh Moffett and Andy Hayes took third place in a Citroen C3 taking yime to adjust to a new car unfamiliar to them.  

It was a tough event with 113 starting in the main field on Saturday but only seventy-three of those surviving the weekend.

The modified rally also went down to the wire as Conor Murphy suffered engine problems on the final pair of stages and a late charge from Frank Kelly saw him take the category by just four seconds from Murphy.

Meirion Evans took the Historic win from Tomas Davies, the two Welsh drivers having dominated from midway through the first day. John O’Donnell took third place over the final stage to get past Hugh McQuaid.

The RC4 class was won by less than five seconds by Ryan McHugh as Keelan Grogan clipped a bale on the final stage to drop back to second in the category. Joseph Kelly and Killian McArdle were third in their Peugeot.

The next round of the championship takes place in West Cork on St. Patricks weekend. Cork Motor Club have announced that The West Cork Rally will now run for three days, from March 15-17 2024, Friday to Sunday