Vote for your Irish rally crew of 2024

2024 was a showcase year for Irish rallying. From Keith Cronin’s domineering Irish Tarmac return in Galway to Kalle Rovanpera’s fan-fuelled visit to Killarney – it has been a rally fan’s treat.

In no particular order, Rally Insight has selected its top ten crews from the Emerald Isle and it is up to you to vote for your pick of the year. No pressure!

1 Callum Devine – Noel O’Sullivan

The defending Irish Tarmac Rally Champions missed out on another crown by the narrowest of margins, finishing tied on points with friendly rivals Keith Cronin and Mikie Galvin.

Non-finishes on the West Cork Rally and the Circuit of Ireland meant they needed a flawless fightback to salvage a title challenge.

A hat-trick Rally of the Lakes victory and a debut Skoda success in Donegal swung them back up the Irish Tarmac tree. A second on the Ulster and first in Cork wasn’t enough to overturn Cronin’s advantage but it leaves the duo a formidable force aboard their Skoda Fabia Rally2.

2 Craig Rahill – Conor Smith / Killian McArdle

Cavan’s Craig Rahill clocked up 16 rallies on his way to the 2024 Billy Coleman Award. With the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy increasing its mark on international rallying, there are few prizes that offer more potential than MI’s Young Rally Driver of the Year.

Rahill switched from his Ford Escort Mk2 to a Ford Fiesta Rally4 halfway through 2023 and embarked on asphalt and gravel campaigns in 2024.

Rahill went on a roll of class wins after success on the Circuit of Munster, including an incredible top ten overall on the loose of the Lakeland Stages Rally.

A 49.1-second Junior BRC win on the Cambrian Rally capped off a seriously impressive year that could kick-start an exciting rally career for the 21-year-old.

3 Eamonn Boland – MJ Morrissey

Ireland has enjoyed an influx of Irish competitors in the World Rally Championship recently. Eamonn Boland and MJ Morrissey have been unmoved regulars in the series for the guts of 15 years, though.

2024 was a special year for the Rally2 duo as they tackled the WRC Masters Cup. Strong results on Rally Monte-Carlo, the Central European Rally, and Rally Japan ensured Morrissey claimed a memorable co-drivers’ title in the Masters Cup.

The success also meant Ireland has had a WRC champion in each of the past three seasons.

4 Frank Kelly – Lauren Kelly

Showboating, crowd-pleasing, and gymkhana-style antics have put Frank and Lauren Kelly at the top of many people’s favourite rally crews across the world. They continued their showcase calendar of foreign events in 2024 but also pencilled in a Modified Irish Tarmac campaign.

Kelly showed he is not all scary skids and big slides, braving a wet and wild Galway International Rally to bring Baby Blue home at the front of the two-wheel-drive pack.

Further strong results in Killarney, Donegal, and the Ulster Rally kept him in championship contention with a series shootout against Damian Toner set up for the Cork 20.

Kelly went for broke in miserable conditions to claim another two-wheel-drive victory and ensure both Frank and Lauren ended the year with Modified ITRC honours.

Their fruitful year also included a Mk2 Trophy victory on the Carlow Stages Rally.

5 Josh McErlean – James Fulton

A switch to Toksport’s Skoda Fabia Rally2 outfit straightaway paid dividends for the MI Rally Academy crew. Josh McErlean and James Fulton found themselves locked in a fascinating battle for top WRC2 points on their opening round, Rally Portugal.

McErlean drove brilliantly to secure his best result to date, second in Rally Portugal’s WRC2 category, missing out on top spot by a narrow 3.2 seconds after halving Jan Solans’ lead on the famous Fafe Power Stage.

Another top ten overall WRC finish came on Acropolis Rally Greece as well as 11th and 12th overall finishes on the Central European Rally and Rally Finland.

Victory at home on the Tour of the Sperrins was a memorable moment for McErlean whose year finished with the seismic news that he will drive for M-Sport Ford’s Rally1 team next year.

6 Jon Armstrong – Eoin Treacy

A link-up with M-Sport and the MI Rally Academy had Jon Armstrong and Eoin Treacy join forces for a maiden European Rally Championship campaign.

Two eighth-place finishes and a sixth-place finish showed the pair’s early potential as they learned how to find the last tenths of seconds aboard their Ford Fiesta Rally2.

The duo fought back from an early puncture on Rali Ceredigion to claim a top-six finish, grabbing top British Rally Championship points on the second day of competition.

Armstrong brought that confidence forward to ERC’s final round, Rally Silesia in Poland, claiming their first podium of the year in second overall. Power loss on stage two put Armstrong on the back foot early on but he fought back from 14th to claim the runner-up spot.

Seven stage wins on the Polish event put out a statement for Armstrong’s ability in what would likely have been a maiden ERC victory had he not suffered technical difficulties earlier in the event.

7 Keith Cronin – Mikie Galvin

Keith Cronin and Mike Galvin made a storming return to the Irish Tarmac Rally Championship winning its opening two rounds in imperious style – the Galway and West Cork International Rallies.

Another victory on the Ulster Rally and runner-up finishes on the Circuit of Ireland and Cork 20 ensured they took Irish Tarmac honours in a hotly contested series featuring Callum Devine, Matt Edwards, and Josh Moffett.

Cronin’s ability to punch in searing stage times made him hard to match across ITRC’s asphalt events. That feature was no more evident than on Killarney’s opening day when he mastered the Ardgroom and Cod’s Heads test to take an early 33.3-second lead. A puncture destroyed what was looking to be a perfect performance on the Beara Peninsula.

The south-west pairing had a more trialling British Rally Championship campaign but still came away with a victory on the Jim Clark Rally.

8 Ryan MacHugh – Declan Boyle

Ryan MacHugh and Declan Boyle took no time to warm up aboard their Ford Fiesta Rally4 at the start of 2024. Wins in Galway and West Cork set the stall for a domineering Rally4 campaign in the Irish Tarmac Championship.

Their fast start combined with a class win in Donegal put them in an uncatchable position at the top of the Rally4 standings. Strong showings on gravel also caught the eye as the Donegal duo look set to shine on even bigger stages in future years.

9 Shane McGirr – Denver Rafferty

Shane McGirr’s Lada Riva was in a league of its own on Ireland’s array of loose-surface events this year.

McGirr and Denver Rafferty secured class wins on seven of eight rallies in 2024, only denied a full house of victories by mechanical retirement in Fivemiletown.

The Lada crew’s lucid displays of gravel mastery made sure they took Irish Forest Rally Championship honours as well as a two-wheel-drive victory on the Kielder Forest Rally.

10 William Creighton – Liam Regan

The 2023 Junior World Rally Champions graduated to M-Sport’s Ford Fiesta Rally2 in 2024 and quickly showed what they could do with a trio of podiums in West Cork, the North West Stages, and the Severn Valley Stages.

William Creighton and Liam Regan sparked a British Rally Championship challenge with a third runner-up finish of the season on the Jim Clark Rally. It was an impressive string of performances against accomplished Rally2 drivers like Chris Ingram, Keith Cronin, and Osian Pryce. Another runner-up finish on the series finale, the Cambrian Rally, wasn’t enough to claim the title ahead of Toyota Yaris pilot Ingram.

A top-five WRC2 finish in Rally Latvia was the highlight of their maiden WRC2 campaign. The signs are there for an even better year in 2025.

Vote closes at noon Friday 10th January.

Photos by D Harrigan Images, @World, Red Bull Content Pool, M-Sport