A PEERLESS drive in continually evolving conditions handed Keith Cronin a comprehensive victory at the Clonakilty Park Hotel West Cork Rally – round two of the Irish Tarmac Rally Championship.
The 37-year-old led home a podium lockout for the Ford Fiesta Rally2 as Welshman Matt Edwards, and Moira’s William Creighton – the reigning Junior World Champion – finished second and third.
Cronin insisted in the build-up that despite living 30 miles away his knowledge of the country roads in the area would be of little benefit given that he last appeared on the event entry list in 2016.
But in a display that bore similar hallmarks to the opening round in Galway six weeks earlier, Cronin – and co-driving team-mate Mikie Galvin – proved unstoppable and secured victory by 57 seconds.
“It is a mighty result on what has been a tough rally, especially Saturday’s stages when the weather was difficult,” said Cronin. “We carried a good lead going into Sunday and we took no risks – we did not really push at all today. We focused on trying the manage the gap and getting to the end.
“The result is great and it is great for the Championship but there is still a long way to go – we are still early in the season,” added Cronin, who is back in action next Friday and Saturday for round one of the Probite British Rally Championship, the Legends Fires North West Stages in Lancashire.
Cronin initially trailed the Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 of defending Tarmac champions Callum Devine and Noel O’Sullivan after Friday’s four tests before the leaderboard took on a different complexion on Saturday’s first run when the top two crews swapped places and Cronin led by 3.2 seconds.
What was shaping up to be an intriguing battle for the neutral fell flat on the day’s third timed run when, close to the start, Devine collected a right-front puncture and lost the guts of two minutes.
The Claudy driver would later retire his German supermini after the rear suspension on it failed.
That meant Edwards – who was on a confidence-building exercise following his early Galway bath – was promoted to second place. He consistently set top-three times on biblically wet roads across Saturday and continued to excel on Sunday when the sun came out despite an issue with the back differential rendering his car’s handbrake ineffective.
A surprise third on his first ever asphalt outing in the Fiesta Rally2 was Creighton. He survived a handful of heart stopping moments during the course of the Saint Patrick’s weekend meeting to score his first-ever scratch times in the Irish Tarmac Championship. Like Cronin, he is Lancashire-bound in the coming days before his attention switches to April’s WRC2-counting Croatia Rally.
Josh Moffett’s hopes of making it three West Cork Rally triumphs in a row were ended early doors due to handling and set-up struggles with his car. Once resolved, he clawed his way back up the order to fourth where he won the €5,000 on offer for being the highest-placed Citroen C3 Rally2 contender.
Rounding out the top five in another Citroen C3 Rally2 was Carryduff’s Jonathan Greer. He, too, was relieved to see the final time control after losing count of the close shaves he had over the course of the three-day competition with Niall Burns.
