CRONIN EXPECTS NO HOME COMFORTS IN KILLARNEY

CRONIN EXPECTS NO HOME COMFORTS IN KILLARNEY

For Keith Cronin and Mikie Galvin, current leaders of the NAPA Auto Parts Irish Tarmac Rally Championship, this weekend’s Assess Ireland Rally of the Lakes represents their home fixture. They are both members of the organising Killarney and District Motor Club, and Galvin is from the town. Cronin, meanwhile, hails from Ballylickey, in the far south west of County Cork, but still within the Killarney club’s extensive hinterland. While the rally may be on familiar territory for the defending Tarmac Champions, it was not especially kind to them last year, and they will be hoping for a more successful outcome on this occasion.

Twelve months ago, they took the lead on stage two, and built up a sizable advantage of over half a minute through the next few tests. It seemed that they were on an unassailable path to victory, but that outcome was undone by a puncture on Ardgroom. They eventually took fastest time on ten of the event’s fourteen stages, but that was not enough to undo the damage, and the win went to Callum Devine and Noel O’Sullivan, marking their third Rally of the Lakes success in a row. Cronin and Galvin went on to win the Tarmac Championship, but only after tie-break had to be invoked to separate them from Devine and O’Sullivan, who finished the year on the same points total.

Devine and O’Sullivan will lead the Rally of the Lakes field away from the Killarney start as the No. 1 seeds in their Skoda Fabia RS. They will be followed by Cronin and Galvin in the M O’Brien Group of Companies/Shane Casey Electrical Services Citroën C3 Rally 2, with Matt Edwards and David Moynihan next up in their Hyundai i20N. Welsh visitor, Meirion Evans, co-driven by local man, Ger Conway, starts at four in a Toyota GR Yaris.

“We’ve seen how fickle rallying can be, especially over the past couple of years,” says Cronin. “We had a good lead built up on the Lakes twelve months ago when we got the puncture on Saturday afternoon, it cost us well over two minutes. Any chance of winning the rally was gone and I really felt like parking it up, but Mikie pushed me on to keep going. We had another few fastest times on the Sunday, and wound up fourth. Later on in the season we won in Ulster, that was really important in terms of the Tarmac Championship, and we got it on the Cork ’20’ on the tie-break. This year we’ve seen both sides again, we got the win in West Cork after Jon Armstrong had his engine problem after the final stage, then on the Circuit of Ireland a couple of weeks ago we had the brake issues when we were leading with a couple of stages to go, and ended up eighth at the finish. You have to put in the times, but you need a bit of luck as well to get it over the line.”

While he may be on home ground this weekend, Cronin is taking nothing for granted with regard to the rally or the championship, and is quick to recognise the strengths of the opposition. “Callum and Noel started the year late, but they already have a maximum score from the Circuit, and they always go well in Killarney, they’ve won the last three. They’ve also won in Donegal for the past two years. If they were to repeat those results again this season it would be very difficult to hold them back from winning the championship. Matt and David have had two non-finishes, so they’ve nothing to lose by going all-out from now on. I expect that Meirion and Ger will be pushing us also, we’ve seen what the Toyota can do on the British Championship rounds. We’ll have to give it our best to stay in the mix. These two rallies will be crucial to how the year unfolds for all of us.”

The Ceremonial Start of the Assess Ireland Rally of the Lakes will take place in Killarney town centre on Friday evening. There is an early start for the crews on Saturday, with the first of the day’s nine stages getting under way at 8.13am. The layout will consist of three loops of three stages, Headford, Lisbabe and Red Bog, to the east and north of the town. The rally will re-start on Sunday morning with the famous Molls Gap stage at 10:50am, and this is followed by Beallaghbeama and Shanara. This loop is repeated in the afternoon, making a total of six stages on Day 2. The Finish Ramp celebrations will take place at Rally Headquarters, the Gleneagle Hotel, at 5.15pm.

Keith Cronin and Mikie Galvin are supported by M O’Brien Group of Companies, Shane Casey Electrical Services, Michelin Tyres, Cronin’s Centra (Ballylickey, Union Hall, Leap, Millstreet and Dundrum), Cronin’s HomeValue Hardware, Daybreak Westlink, Cremin Coaches, Keohane Seafoods, Citroën Racing, and Race and Rally Motorsport. Their Citroën C3 Rally 2 is prepared and run by Tom Gahan Motorsport.

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