Cronin plays it safe and wraps up third British Rally title

Cork driver Keith Cronin duly wrapped up his third British Rally Championship title with a measured drive through the six stage International Rally of Yorkshire, the final round of the series.

The Ballylickey driver and his Fermanagh co-driver, Marshall Clarke, in their Michael O’Brien Plant Hire supported Citroen DS3 RT3 only needed a top eight finish the win the series and that statistic dictated their performance.

Cronin, who won his first title in 2009 and bridged a 35-year gap since Billy Coleman won the title, added a second the following season and is now just one of four driver to have won three or more British titles – Jimmy McRae (five), Roger Clark (four) and Mark Higgins, also three, are the others.

On the opening stage on Friday evening, a 15.5-mile stage through the Dalby Forest, in extremely slippery conditions forced Cronin to back off considerably and he ended the stage in third position.

Meanwhile, Northern Ireland’s, Jonny Greer/Gordon Noble lost the left-front wheel of their Citroen after the wheel-studs sheared as they accelerated out of a slow corner a mile before the end of the stage. They were able to continue on Saturday’s five stages under SuperRally rules.

Welsh crew Tom Cave and Craig Parry, who were the eventual winners, stretched their lead to three second over Osian Pryce and Iestyn.

As Cronin kept his composure, Cave and Pryce were locked in combat for the Citroen Junior championship that offered a prize of €10,000. Cave clipped a rock on the second run over the 15.5-mile stage through Dalby Forest and bent the car’s rear suspension, Pryce took full advantage and took an 8.8 second lead into the final test. Cronin was a further 17 seconds behind.

Cave pushed hard through the 14-mile stage at Langdale Forest and negated Pryce’s 8.8 second advantage and took the victory after the tie-break rule was invoked. Interestingly, it was the first time in six years that two drivers ended with the same time, in 2006, the late Rory Galligan and Mark Higgins recorded the feat on the Jim Clark Rally.

The Irish duo of Desi Henry and Barry McNulty were fourth, Henry was selected as the final nominee to go through to the Pirelli Star Driver shoot-out, the winner of which will drive in a Citroën DS3 in next year’s British Rally Championship.

“We opted to drive at a sensible pace, no risks, no cutting corners, really driving in the middle of the road,” said Cronin. “Our only issue was after the water-splash when the windscreen misted over.

“At the finish, I was as much relieved as happy. Given the position I was in, it was all about getting it to the finish. The car ran faultlessly.”

Meanwhile, Cork driver, Matt Griffin (Ferrari 458) and his MTECH team mate, Duncan Cameron lost out in their bid to win the British GT Championship at Donington Park yesterday. Despite some problems with traction control, the Blarney driver managed to a strong time during the final minutes of qualifying to claim fourth on the grid.

Entering the final 20 minutes of the two-hour race, Griffin, who was running in the top six, looked set to take the title. However, there was contact between his MTECH Ferrari and the Ecurie Ecosse BMW Z4 of Oliver Bryant, whose team-mate Alasdair McCaig was Griffin’s main title rival. Bryant subsequently collected a one minute stop-go penalty.

Although Griffin made up a few places to finish tenth, it wasn’t enough. Griffin and Cameron had to settle for fourth in the series.