Cronin Motorsport headed to Mitchelstown last weekend for their first event of 2009, the Sean Conlon Memorial Forestry Stages. On their most recent visits to this event Keith had finished second overall in 2007 and Denis finished fourth overall last year. This year saw them both improve on their previous best here, as Keith and Greg won the event having led for most of the day and Denis and Helen claimed third spot on the final stage.

Bitterly cold and icy conditions greeted the competitors as they arrived to Park Ferme on Sunday morning. Conditions on the stages were similar and the first stage was deemed too icy to be safely run, as was the first 5 km of stage 2. This meant that the crews arrived into the first service having completed only 2/3 of a competitive stage, but having driven in convoy through the unused sections.

Having seen the amount of ice on the sections which were cancelled, most crews adopted a cautious approach to the first competitive section and when they arrived into first service the rally was being led by local man Pat O’Connell in his Evo 7. Trailing him by just 2 seconds in their Cremin Coaches Evo 9 were Keith Cronin and Greg Shinnors who admitted to being very cautious on that opening test. Perhaps the biggest news was that Ray Breen had dropped 28 seconds to the stage winner, which he claimed was due to a throttle problem.

The second competitive stage saw the Ballylickey/Limerick pairing fastest by 7 seconds from Trevor Harding / Andrew Purcell, as they moved 22 seconds clear of the earlier leader, O’Connell. This meant that after two stages Harding/Purcell wee the closest challengers, 11 seconds in arrears.

On the second loop of stages, all three stages were run and the first competitive run over stage 1&4 saw Cronin extend his lead by a further 6 seconds over Harding who remained the only viable challenger after Ray Breen had retired with throttle maladies.

Harding was then the pacesetter on stage 5 and he trimmed 4 seconds from Cronin’s lead as the final stage loomed. Entering that final stage with just a 13 sec lead, Cronin expected a big attack from Harding/Purcell. In response to this expected attack Cronin literally changed up a gear and beat his closest challenger on the stage by 22 seconds. This ensured his first ever victory on the National Forestry Championship.

Having led numerous previous rounds of this championship and having had many fastest times, this was a victory that took a long time to arrive, although many were in no doubt that it arrive!

Denis Cronin and Helen O’Sullivan, seeded just ahead of nephew Keith ended the day a fantastic 3^rd Overall. This was despite the fact that they were using tarmac dampers under their WRC Subaru, in anticipation of the forthcoming West Cork Rally. Some adjustments at the last service were enough to ensure that on the last stage they got ahead of early rally leader Pat O’Connell and finished two places behind "Junior".