THE West Cork trio of Ballylickey brothers Robert and Colin Cronin and Ballymakeery’s Keith Grant were amongst those honoured at the recent Motorsport Ireland Karting Championship awards ceremony at the Midlands Park Hotel in Portlaoise.
Ballymakery’s Keith Grant was presented with his award for finishing third in the very competitive Cadet category that was won by Mogeely’s Daniel Kelleher. Always in the leading pack throughout the season and showing improvement on each of the eight rounds, Keith (12) took his inaugural win on the final round of the series.
In the earlier rounds he notched up two podium finishes (second and third) along with top six finishes in all the other rounds. For the 2023 season, he moves up to the Iame X-30 Junior category of the MI series. There, and to comply with the regulations, he will have to carry an extra 26kg in weights.
Colin Cronin picked up his award for finishing second in the Iame X-30 Junior series. In 2022 he netted a pair of first and second placed finishes and was in the top six on all the other events with the exception of the round at Kartworld in Watergrasshill where he was spun out of contention. His plan is to continue racing in the Iame X-30 series along with participating in the Benelux Karting Championship that begins in Belgium on St Patrick’s weekend.
Meanwhile, his brother Robert finished third in the Rotax Senior Max category; he took two race wins but had to skip one round due to his participation in an event overseas. As revealed in The Southern Star late last year he will make his car racing debut in the 2023 Porsche Visit Cayman Islands Sprint Challenge GB where he will be run by the Leicestershire-based Team Parker Racing. Given that the series doesn’t clash with events in the MI Rotax Max series, he will also compete in a full season of karting.
