17 March 2024
By Bryan McCarthy
bryan@TheCork.ie
The Saturday stages of the 2024 Clonakilty Park Hotel West Cork Rally proved some of the most challenging ever experienced on this
iconic event. After the fine spring weather of the previous day, it was a damp and extremely foggy start to day 2, as the crews
headed to the Clogagh stage. Keith Cronin who had been second overnight set a blistering pace from the work go, and after the
Clogagh and Castletown stages had turned a six second deficit into a fourteen second lead. Matt Edwards, William Creighton and
Josh Moffett completed the top five going into the first service, but nobody was coming near Cronin’s pace.
Heavy rain made life even more complicated for the crews on the second loop, but Cronin was still the master. Devines hopes took a
tumble with a puncture that cost ninety seconds and dropped him to sixth. Declan Boyle who had been seventh overnight went off
the road on Clogagh and retired as the heavens opened and torrential rain fell for over twenty minutes. Eventually the stage was
cancelled on safety grounds due to a large amount of standing water throughout the test. The completion of the second run over
Castletown saw Cronin with a very healthy lead of almost 70 seconds over Matt Edwards with William Creighton in third place.
Ring and Dunworley were next up as the rain eased but the foggy and damp conditions intensified, and Creighton took an impressive
fastest time on Ring. However Cronin put that to rights with a blazing time over Dunworley with only Edwards coming within ten
seconds of the Cork driver. Devine was setting some good times too and had Moffett in his sights in his attempt to regain lost
ground. Creighton again took fastest on the second run over Ring as Devine moved into fourth place with only one stage remaining
for the day. That repeat of Dunworley ended Devines hopes as he hit a bank and damaged the rear suspension badly enough to force
him out of the rally. Cronin was again fastest to lead overnight by almost 80 seconds from Edwards. Creighton in third place is a
further thirty seconds behind Edwards, but is forty seconds ahead of Moffett. Jonny Greer & David Kelly round off the top six places
overnight.
Kevin Eves is the best of the modifieds after some stunning times to overhaul Jonathan Pringle, but both drivers have driven superbly
despite the conditions. Colin Byrne is now in third place in the category following the retirements of Conor Murphy and John Dalton,
both of whom had mechanical issues. The competitive RC4 class sees Ryan McHugh hold a lead of over a minute from a hard
charging Ioan Lloyd with Cian Caldwell in third place. Keelan Grogan, Kyle McBride and Craig Rahill were amongst those to drop out
of contention for a variety of reasons. The Historic category is being led by Tomas Davies from Neil Williams, just sixteen seconds
separating the pair with Ray Breen in third place. Amongst the retirements were Gareth James, Meirion Evans, Tommy McDonagh
and John O’Donnell.
Top 5 Overnight
1 – Keith Cronin & Mikie Galvin Ford Fiesta Rally 2 1:24:04.3
2 – Matt Edwards & David Moynihan Ford Fiesta Rally 2 1:25:23.1
3 – William Creighton & Liam Regan Ford Fiesta Rally 2 1:25:54.9
4 – Josh Moffett & Andy Hayes Citroen C3 Rally 2 1:26:34.0
5 – Jonny Greer & Niall Burns Citroen C3 Rally 2 1:27:06.8