KEITH Cronin insists that there is plenty of room for improvement from his side of the car despite the convincing manner in which he won the Galway International Rally for a second time over the weekend.
Cronin recorded fastest times on seven of the event’s 13 special stages alongside co-driving team-mate Mikie Galvin to score maximum Irish Tarmac Rally Championship points by 38.1 seconds and take an early lead ahead in the standings from reigning champion Callum Devine.
The margin of their success could have been greater, however, had organisers not been forced to shelve the 10th special stage on safety grounds as some spectators were deemed to be standing in dangerous locations.
On his return to the cross-border competition for the first time since his title-winning season of 2016, four-time British Rally champion Cronin wasted no time in stamping his authority on proceedings.
Despite the weather on Ireland’s west coast continually evolving during each loop of stages, Cronin was the one who made the right tyre calls and read the roads best to leave his rivals floundering.
He led the Corrib Oil-backed event after the opening test only to lose out to the Citroen C3 Rally2 of Josh Moffett before Cronin regained control in his new M-Sport Ford Fiesta Rally2 at the end of the third stage. From that moment on, his confidence steadily grew and he never looked like being stopped.
“We haven’t done a rally at this level in Ireland for a long time,” reflected Cronin.
“I certainly didn’t expect to win in Galway – it was fantastic.
“The new Fiesta just clicked. We got the set-up good for here, the Pirelli tyres worked well. We actually used the same tyre for the whole of the weekend.”
With a six-week break between Galway and the West Cork Rally on St Patrick’s weekend, the 37-year-old wants to make good use of the time available.
“The next round in West Cork will be completely different,” he explained.
“Galway is notoriously slippery and tricky and the mixed conditions I like, they seem to suit me, whereas West Cork will be faster and probably drier, so we will have to continue working hard.
“It will be a completely different rally. We had a good set-up for the Fiesta in Galway, so hopefully we can do the same for West Cork.”
