BALLYLICKEY’S Daniel Cronin and his Dunmanway co-driver Donnchadh Burke, in their Cronin’s Centra liveried Citroen C3 Rally2, are targeting a good outing at Sunday’s Tralee-based Rose Hotel Circuit of Kerry.
Reigning Triton Showers National Rally champion, Monaghan’s Josh Moffett, made the perfect start to the series earlier this month when he secured maximum points with his third-placed finish on the Jeremy O’Connor Longford Arms Hotel Rally. Rally winner Josh McErlean and second placed Matt Edwards did not register for the series.
Moffett will start as favourite this Sunday, with a very competitive entry that sees much of the top ten based on the championship positions after the opening round.
Derry’s Desi Henry, also in a Citroen C3 Rally2, has decided to tackle the national series that ends with the Fastnet Rally next October while Kilkenny’s Eddie Doherty (Skoda Fabia R5) continues to show great pace. Former triple champion Donegal’s Declan Boyle (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2) showed good pace in the recent Clonakilty Park Hotel West Cork Rally while Monaghan’s Sam Moffett (Hyundai i20 N Rally2), who has Daniel Cronin’s former co-driver Shane Buckley calling the notes, is concentrating on the national series.
A top-three finisher over the last two seasons, Daniel Cronin/Donnchadh Burke (Citroen C3 Rally2) start from the number six berth. They took ten championship points away from Longford but Cronin should expect to increase that tally in Kerry. His participation in the recent Clonakilty Park West Cork Rally was centred on getting seat time for the Circuit of Kerry but an incident on the third stage changed matters as he explained.
‘I rolled the car on the first night stage (SS3). Luckily, there was very little damage and we were able to go again (on Saturday and Sunday) under Super Rally. We got all 14 stages and the good thing about that was that we were able to build the confidence again. We were able to set up the car a little bit better and that should help on Sunday,’ Cronin said.
‘In one sense it was a bit of a disaster crashing out, but that’s out of the way now with the stages under our belt. The stages in the Circuit of Kerry will be new to me and probably to a few more. Looking at the DVD, the bogey times won’t be beaten anyway – they are action packed, they are similar to the Borlin stage around here (Ballylickey). I need a good finish after Longford.’
Elsewhere, Kilcrohane’s Jer O'Donovan and Rosscarbery’s Alistair Wyllie, who had a brief West Cork Rally outing (crashing their Ford Fiesta R5 within 20 seconds of the first stage), are also competing in Kerry as is Durrus driver Etienne O'Sullivan (Honda Civic).
Barryroe co-driver Dylan Doonan competes with Tyrone’s Barry Morris (Darrian T90 GTR) and Newcestown’s Adrian Deasy calls the notes for Killarney’s Alan Ring (Subaru Legacy RS). The three stage locations are Camp Mountain, Minard Castle and Flemmingstown with service after SS3 and SS6 at MTU Tralee. The first stage begins at 8.38am and the finish ramp celebrations at the Rose Hotel, Tralee are scheduled for 5.45pm.
