KEITH Cronin was satisfied with his second-place finish in Sunday's East Riding Rally in Yorkshire, the first round of this year's Probite British Rally Championship.
The Ballylickey driver, a four-time British champion, debuted a Citroen C3 Rally2 on the ten-stage event in Beverley. Co-driven by Killarney's Mikie Galvin, they finished 23.8 seconds behind the Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 of Northern Ireland pair William Creighton/Liam Regan, who recorded their maiden victory in a round of the BRC.
Some 12 months ago Cronin's first two outings in the series – the North West Rally and the Severn Valley Rally (seventh and 19th overall respectively) – proved very disappointing and meant an uphill battle to win the series for a record-equalling fifth time.
Conscious of those results, the Ballylickey ace had targeted a podium finish as he debuted his new Citroen C3 Rally2 bolted on with Michelin tyres.
Weather conditions for the morning's four stages were dry but extremely slippery, particularly the opening 12.67km Wawne Common stage. Cronin's stage time of six minutes and 52.9 seconds put him fifth overall, 8.9 seconds behind rally leader Creighton, who was followed by Garry Pearson (Ford Fiesta Rally2), James Williams (Hyundai i20 Rally2) and Max McRae (Citroen C3 Rally2), the latter was a mere 0.4 of a second in front of Cronin, who was running first on the road.
At the stage finish, Cronin said, ‘Conditions were tricky, particularly on the second half of the stage that was very greasy. I was very cautious, it's not the time to take risks.'
As Creighton punched in the quickest time on SS2 (Coom Hill, 12.17km), Cronin was second quickest with a time that was 4.5 seconds behind Creighton's time with the latter extending his lead to 9.7 seconds over Pearson with Cronin moving to third, 13.3 seconds off top spot.
Creighton continued to set the pace on SS3 and SS4 and arrived at the service park with an 18.7-second lead over Cronin, who moved into second on SS4. Pearson slipped to fourth after a spin on SS4 where Max McRae slid his Citroen C3 Rally2 into a fence; he suffered a hand injury that forced him to retire.
On two runs of the short spectator stage there was only fractions of a second between Cronin and Creighton, who extended his advantage to 19.7 seconds. Then, on SS7, a repeat of the morning's first stage (albeit in wet conditions) Creighton pushed his lead out to 24.6 seconds and at the stage finish remarked, 'Just got to be smart.' Cronin said: 'It's very slippery, so easy to get caught out, you are trying to read the road all the time.'
Creighton went 24.7 seconds ahead after SS8 where the Ballylickey driver was only a tenth of a second off Creighton's stage-winning time. Cronin was the quickest BRC registered competitor on the penultimate stage and a mere fraction of a second slower than Creighton on the final stage as the latter secured his first-ever victory in a round of the British Rally Championship. Pearson and Welsh ace Meirion Evans (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) completed the top four.
‘At the start of the rally I was hoping for a podium finish as we had such a bad start to the season last year. We struggled a bit at the start, it's (the car) still not 100 percent but a little more fine tuning and we will get there. There was a lot to learn (new car, new tyres). In my younger days I probably would have taken a few risks but now I want to feel my way into things,’ Cronin said.
The Probite British Rally Championship switches to gravel for its second round, the Carlisle Stages Rally on April 12th. In the meantime Cronin will begin the defence of his Irish Tarmac Championship title on the Clonakilty Park Hotel West Cork Rally in two weeks' time.
Results: 1.W. Creighton/L. Regan (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) 41m. 03.6s; 2. K. Cronin/M. Galvin (Citroën C3 Rally2)+ 23.8s; 3. J. Williams/R. Whittock (Hyundai i20 N Rally2)+33.0s; 4. M. Evans/D. Furniss (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2)+39.5s; 5. C. Black/J. Morton (Ford Fiesta Rally2)+48.3s; 6. R. Jurgenson/ S. Oja (Ford Fiesta Rally2)+57.0.
