‘SAVAGE!’ was how Robert Cronin (18) described his recent motor racing debut.
Racing with the Leicestershire-based Team Parker Racing, the Ballylickey driver was competing in the Porsche Visit Cayman Islands Sprint Challenge GB series in Donington Park, where he finished 12th, ninth and 11th in his respective three races.
Afterwards, he told The Southern Star: ‘I wasn’t expecting anything from the weekend, so I suppose everything was a plus getting through it. Saturday’s first race was in the dry and it was raining on Sunday so I reckon I got good experience in the different conditions.’
He explained how the series works: ‘In the qualifying session, your fastest lap gives you position for the opening race, your second best lap is your grid position for the second race and then the grid for the third race is decided by the finishing positions in the second race.’
However, Cronin was given a quick reminder of the track rules, as he explained: ‘I lost my best lap time in qualifying as I exceeded track limits. The car is awesome, plenty of power but when you are racing you actually don’t take any notice of it.’
This Thursday, Cronin will test in Brands Hatch and he returns to karting next weekend in Tynagh, Co. Galway. He concluded: ‘The team is great, I suppose getting to the finish of all three races without any major incident was great, it’s all about learning race craft.’
The next round of the series is on May 20th and 21st in Snetterton, Norwich.
