By Padraig Reddington,

This weekend’s Jim Clark Rally in the Scottish Borders marks the mid-point of Keith Cronin and Mikie Galvin’s combined 2024 British Rally Championship and Irish Tarmac Rally Championship campaign.

While the Killarney and District Motor Club crew lead the Tarmac series in their Ford Fiesta Rally 2, they have had a troubled start to the British Championship, and lie eighth in the standings, 32 points off the lead, following the opening two rounds.
A strong result in Scotland would provide a timely boost to their British challenge and could prove crucial to the ultimate determination of the title battle, one that Cronin has won on four previous occasions.
“We haven’t had the greatest of starts to the BRC, between punctures and mechanical issues, the North West Stages Rally and the Severn Valley didn’t go well, so we could do with a clean run this weekend,” said Cronin.
“The points situation doesn’t appear great, but it’s not as bad as it looks, There’s two rounds gone, with four more to go, and the best five results of the season count towards the total. Each leg of Rali Ceredigion at the end of the summer represents a separate scoring opportunity, and the final round, the Cambrian Rally, is worth points-and-a-half, so there’s five scoring opportunities left, and the last two events are effectively worth three and half rallies.
“Hopefully we’ll be in the shake-up at the end of the year, but whoever the contenders will be, I expect that the championship won’t be decided until the final stage of the final rally.”
Chris Ingram, winner of the North West Stages, currently leads the standings on 42 points.
He is followed by William Creighton, who finished second on the North West and Severn Valley rallies, on 38, while Severn Valley victor Osian Pryce occupies third place on the leaderboard, with 27 points.
The Jim Clark Rally, named after the two-time Formula One World Champion, Indianapolis 500 winner, and Duns’ most famous son, gets underway on Friday evening, with the Langton Mill spectator stage, which features a watersplash within its short layout.

The next test, Abbey St. Bathans, is the longest of the rally, at 16 kilometres, and this is followed by Blackadder, which is just over 11km in length.
After Service in Duns, this loop will be repeated as darkness falls, and the crews will return to the headquarters town from around 10pm onwards.

Saturday’s action consists of four stages repeated, with Langton Mill again opening the loop. The rest of quartet, Edrom, Ayton and Fogo, are all in the region of seven miles long.
The winners’ champagne celebrations will take place in Duns Square at approximately 2.20pm.
“I like the Jim Clark Rally, I usually seem to go well there, so hopefully things will go well again this time around,” said Cronin, who won the event in 2012 and 2022, and finished second last year to World Rally Championship driver, Adrien Fourmaux.