ONE week after his West Cork Rally success, Keith Cronin made it two wins in a row.
After a late decision to compete in the Carlow Forest Rally, the opening round of the Sligo Pallets Irish Forest Rally Championship, Ballylickey’s Keith Cronin and his Killarney co-driver Mikie Galvin (Citroen C3 Rally2) led throughout the event and finished with a 28.6-second winning margin over the Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 of Ulster’s Jason Mitchell and Paddy McCrudden.
The reason for their participation in the six-stage Arklow-based event was for a shakedown ahead of the forthcoming Carlisle Forest Rally (April 12th), the second round (first gravel event) of the British Rally Championship.
On the first stage Cronin built a 5.8-second advantage over Mitchell with Waterford’s Andrew Purcell (Ford Fiesta Rally2) and his Blackpool co-driver Liam Brennan 4.3 seconds further behind in third. Most of the entry capacity failed to get a run through SS2 after the services were deployed when a junior crew that, according to the tracking system had stopped, apparently didn’t respond to a phone call to determine their welfare.
On SS3, Cronin/Galvin stretched their lead over Mitchell/McCrudden to 13.7 seconds with Purcell/Brennan another 10 seconds further adrift after they encountered some deer.
Top seeds and reigning champions Monaghan’s Derek Mackarel and his Inchigeelagh co-driver Eamonn Creedon (Ford Fiesta R5) actually set the second quickest stage time (five seconds slower than Cronin) with a performance that promoted them from eighth to fourth.
At the Shelton Abbey service park, TGS (Tom Gahan Motorsport) made some changes to Cronin's Citroen. On SS4, a repeat of the opening stage, a 5.5-second gain over Mitchell saw Cronin extend his lead margin to 19.2 seconds with Mackarel/Creedon slotting into third. Unfortunately, SS5 once again fell victim to another stage blockage and the times were unaltered. Then on the final stage, Cronin was quickest again to take the spoils. Mackarel/Creedon finished third.
Afterwards, Cronin said, ‘It was great to get the seat time on gravel. We were trying one or two different things and tyre options. Conditions were mixed and while one probably can’t compare them (stages) with what we will have in Carlisle, it was still good to get seat time.
‘Really, it wasn’t that much about set-up, it was about getting back driving on gravel again. Over the last few years, I haven’t done as much gravel rallying as I would have liked, so it was more to get a rhythm.
‘It was the only rally on this side of the Carlisle Rally so it was good to get the mileage.’
Results: 1. K. Cronin/M. Galvin (Citroen C3 Rally2) 43m. 54.7s; 2. J. Mitchell/P. McCrudden (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2)+28.6s; 3. D. Mackarel/E. Creedon (Ford Fiesta R5)+41.3s; 4. A. Purcell/L. Brennan (Ford Fiesta Rally2)+44.8s; 5. D. Condell/M. Coady (Ford Fiesta Rally2)+57.0s; 6. J. Hone/P. Hone (Ford Fiesta R5)+1m. 02.8s.
