Refocused Cronin gears up for WRC comeback

Irish rally ace Keith Cronin is set to relaunch his World Rally Championship career behind the wheel of a Citroen DS3 R5 in the WRC2 category next season.

The 28 year old from Ballylickey in West Cork — a triple British Rally champion — hasn’t competed since last year’s Rally GB, where he lost out to Frenchman Sebastien Chardonnet in the Citroen Top Driver series that carried the prize drive of competing in this year’s WRC2 Championship in a Citroen DS3 R5.

In the build-up, Cronin plans to compete in some Irish events, possibly even in next week’s Acesigns Cork “20” International Rally, and then his home event, the Westlodge Hotel Fastnet Rally in Bantry, taking place at the end of October.

Cronin said: “Short term, we will probably do a few Irish events, it is hard to know at the moment. I haven’t even tested the car so I don’t know how much work it needs to get a set-up. We might have to do a significant amount of testing as the car hasn’t done anything in Ireland yet.”

The former Billy Coleman award winner added: “It will be down to funding and for those events, it will be at a local level. I’ve had no seat time since last November and I have to work on that, a rally is better than testing as it is the right environment. However, my main target is to get into the WRC again next year.”

European events will be the core of that plan, with events such as France, Spain, Germany and Rally GB on his horizon. Already in discussion with some tyre companies, Cronin said: “That has opened up and given us a few opportunities but it is still very hard to find an overall sponsor, we are still talking with a few people.”

The performance of Tyrone’s Kris Meeke and Killarney’s Paul Nagle with the works Citroen outfit could offer tangible assistance. “There is no doubt that Kris and Paul have raised the profile of the sport here and that can only be good,” said Cronin.

In the past, Cronin also drove a Proton Satria Neo S2000 for the Proton R3 Malaysia Rally Team in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, and inNovember he has a one-off drive in the JRM Subaru in Corsica, where he replaces his former BRC rival, Mark Higgins, for that event.