Daniel Cronin moves into the lead of National Rally Championship

BY MARTIN WALSH

BALLYLICKEY’S Daniel Cronin and his Dunmanway co-driver Donnchadh Burke (VW Polo GTi R5) have moved into the lead of the Triton Showers National Rally Championship following their third-place finish in Sunday’s Clonmel-based STS Group Tipperary Stonethrowers Rally, the sixth round of the series.

With two rounds remaining, the Galway Summer Rally and the Donegal Harvest Rally, the West Cork pair are involved in a tense battle for national supremacy with three other crews – Kilkenny’s Eddie Doherty and co-driver Tom Murphy, Monaghan’s Josh Moffett and his Limerick co-driver Keith Moriarty and Monaghan’s Sam Moffett and James O’Reilly – to become the national champions for 2024.

Victory on Sunday’s eight-stage event went to Moffett/Moriarty (Hyundai i20 R5), who finished 3.4 seconds ahead of Moffett/O’Reilly with Cronin/Burke 22.6 seconds further behind in third. Clonakilty’s Cal McCarthy and his Ballincollig co-driver Stephen Quin (Citroen C3 Rally2) had an untroubled run and finished eighth overall.

On the first stage Ardfinnan, Cronin and Josh Moffett were credited with the same time. Interestingly, Moffett, who struggled with his Citroen C3 Rally2 on the three previous rounds, decided to revert to the Hyundai i20 R5 he drove to championship and event victory in last year’s Fastnet Rally in Bantry. While they tied at the top, both drivers reckoned the times shown were different to what their co-drivers had recorded. Sam Moffett and pre-event championship leader Eddie Doherty also recorded identical stage times, but 4.7 seconds slower than the leading pair. The VW Polo GTi R5 of Tyrone’s Jason Mitchell and the Citroen C3 Rally2 of Derry’s Desi Henry were next on the leaderboard. Cal McCarthy, with Ballincollig’s Stephen Quin deputising for Rosscarbery’s Eric Calnan, occupied tenth.

In dry but sometimes dusty conditions, Josh Moffett went 3.7 seconds ahead of Cronin, who was only half a second off the rally leader’s time for SS3 and arrived at the Clonmel service park 4.2 seconds behind.

‘Things are going okay, apart from a few silly mistakes like running wide, the margins are so close, it’s nice to be battling with Josh (Moffett),’ declared the Ballylickey driver. Cal McCarthy moved up a place to ninth, and said: ‘Everything is fine, I’m getting my confidence back and the car feels good.’

Josh Moffett edged away from Cronin on SS4 and extended his lead to 7.3 seconds and went 9.8 seconds ahead of his older brother Sam, who moved into second upon the completion of SS5. Then, on the short SS6 and under heavy rain, Sam powered his way through and cut the deficit to 3.2 seconds. Meanwhile, Cronin dropped to third, 14.6 seconds behind. He commented: ‘I lost a lot of time on that last stage (SS6). I was on the hardest slick and it was all about getting to the stage finish, it was very slippery.’

Henry punched in a good stage time on SS6 to move into fourth ahead of Doherty. Mitchell slid off the road and out of the rally on SS6 with McCarthy moving up one place to eighth. On the penultimate stage (SS7) Josh managed to punch in the best time. Gaining precious seconds, he extended his lead to 5.2 seconds with Cronin, third fastest on the stage, remaining third. As Josh went on to claim an important win, Sam netted the bonus point for winning the Power Stage and Cronin secured the final spot on the podium to move into the lead of the series.

‘It’s (the championship) still wide open. Whoever wins in Galway will gain an advantage. We’ll have to see how it goes. It’s not going to be easy for sure,’ Cronin said.

The series is based on the best six scores from the eight rounds. Currently, the top four are: 1. D. Cronin 87 points; 2. E. Doherty 85pts; =3. S. Moffett and J. Moffett 76 pts. Taking one dropped score into consideration, the positions change with both Moffetts on 76 points, Doherty 72pts and Cronin 71pts. A win and the bonus point is worth 21 points (the top four finishing points are 20, 18, 16 and 14) illustrating the crucial impact of the result of the Galway Summer Rally on September 1st.

Results: 1. J. Moffett/K. Moriarty (Hyundai i20 R5) 55m. 03.7s; 2. S. Moffett/J. O'Reilly (Hyundai i20 Rally2) +3.4s; 3. D. Cronin/D. Burke (VW Polo GTi R5)+ 26.0s; 4. D. Henry/A. Hayes (Citroen C3 Rally2)+32.9s; 5. E. Doherty/T. Murphy (Skoda Fabia R5)+49.4s; 6. P. Barrett/D. Kelly (Citroen C3 Rally2)+2m. 10.9s; 7. S. Wood/K. Hull (Citroen C3 Rally2)+2m. 28.1s; 8. C. McCarthy/S. Quin (Citroen C3 Rally2)+2m. 50.5s; 9. T. Holton/S. Joyce (Ford Fiesta R5)+2m. 56.5s; 10. M. Carbin/D. O'Sullivan (Ford Escort)+ 3m. 02.3s.