Cronin goes up a gear with funding boost

Even with three British Rally Championship titles under his belt, Keith Cronin had not been able to progress his career due to a lack of funding.

That situation changes today as he embarks on a campaign within the World Rally Championship beginning with the Vodafone Rally de Portugal.

The 26-year-old Ballylickey native, now based in London, will drive his 2012 BRC winning Citroen DS3 in the WRC 3 series of the World Championship. Essentially it’s a special category for two wheel drive cars but, importantly, includes the Citroen Top Driver series where the overall winner will be rewarded with a six-event programme in its all-new R5 specification DS3 in the 2014 WRC.

“With the support of Mick O’Brien, West Cork Oil and Motorsport Ireland, I was able to put a deal together to compete in this championship,” Cronin said. “Without their support it would have been very difficult.”

The car will be run by Greer Motorsport and today’s action will span 14 hours between the start in Vilamoura and the street stage in Lisbon. Amongst his opposition are Bryan Bouffier, Sebastien Chardonnet, Quentin Gilbert and fellow Irish driver Alistair Fisher. Elsewhere, Robert Barrable will debut his recently acquired Ford Fiesta S2000.

VW’s Sebastien Ogier is tipped for event victory in the fourth round of the WRC. His team mate, Jari-Matti Latvala, needs a strong result while Irish fans will look out for the progress of VW debutant Andreas Mikkelsen.

Cork’s Matt Griffin will dovetail the European Le Mans Series and the World Endurance Championship with two different teams at Silverstone tomorrow and Sunday. Tomorrow he will drive for Ram Racing in the three hours of Silverstone.

Douglas born Griffin is involved in four different championships. In this year’s ELMS series, he will race with the Silverstone-based outfit and will have team mate, Johnny Mowlem on board the Ferrari 458 Italia in the LMGTE category.

On Sunday, Griffin will have Italian, Marco Cioci and South African, Jack Gerber for the six-hour WEC race with the factory AF Corse outfit, who will also have ex-F1 stars, Gianmaria Bruni and Giancarlo Fisichella racing for the team in one of three cars.

Cork native Michael O’Brien (Ford Focus WRC) heads an impressive 100 strong entry list for Sunday’s Waterford based Plasticsbags.ie Willie Loughman Forest Rally.

Opening Valvoline Irish Forest Rally Championship round winner, Philip Morrow (Mitsubishi) is joint leader of the campaign with O’Brien and former National Forest champions, Owen Murphy and Pat O’Connell, both in Mitsubishi EvoIXs, in the mix.

Other entries are Martin Cairns (S12B Subaru WRC), Josh Moffett (Mitsubishi), Dan O’Brien (Ford Focus WRC), Vincent McAree (Mitsubishi), John Reid (Toyota Corolla WRC), Sam Moffett (Mitsubishi) and Kevin Barrett (Subaru WRC). The opening stage, Glenpipe, starts at 8.35am.

The IMRC races at Mondello Park will be streamed live (mondello.tv) and will have championship races in the Fiesta Championship, Formula Vee, Formula Libre, Irish Touring Car Championship and Ginetta Juniors. Qualifying takes place tomorrow with racing on Sunday.

Motorsport Ireland has announced that Monaghan’s Josh Moffett is the first bimonthly qualifier for the 2013 Billy Coleman award. During February, he finished second in the Group N category of the Galway International Rally and the Abbeyleix Rally.