| Cronin has perfect score on second round!! |
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| Written by Cronin Motorsport |
| Saturday, 18 April 2009 14:47 |
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When heading to Cumbria this weekend, Cronin Motorsport were taking another giant leap into the unknown. Such giant steps are becoming the norm for this team who, last month, became only the third Irish team ever to lead the BRC. The main objective this weekend was to return home still in contention in the championship. Having triumphed over triple champion Mark Higgins on the opening round in North Wales in March, the second round seemed to be even more daunting, as Champion for the last two years, Guy Wilks, was also on the entry as was former Evo Challenge champion Philip Morrow. Richard Cathcart, who was so rapid on last years Evo Challenge, was also listed to start albeit in a Subaru.Before the event Keith openly admitted that he would not be trying to win the rally, as it was more important at this juncture to consolidate his position with a good points haul. As things transpired on the first stage on Friday evening, Keith felt that for some reason he did not settle into his rhythm properly and consequently on the first stage he dropped over 16 seconds to rally leader Wilks and was only 5th fastest on that opening test. He was happier on the second stage and was only beaten by Wilks and Higgins. In overall terms, the Cork / Limerick pairing were 4th overnight, some 35 seconds off the early leader, Wilks. On Saturday’s first stage they settled in well and despite the car suffering a slight power loss due to turbo problems, they were beaten only by Wilks. Philip Morrow was second to Wilks on the following stage with the Cronin Motorsport crew third, again trimming a couple of seconds from Higgins. Stage 5 saw a different name at the top of the timesheet, when for the first time on this rally somebody beat Wilks. It was Higgins who was fastest, but the Munster crew were only 3.9 seconds slower and they too, beat Wilks on the stage. This stage also saw the demise of Philip Morrow, who crashed out of the rally. Stage 6 saw the Irish crew topping the time sheets and having already moved into third position because of Morrow’s departure, they were steadily nibbling away at Mark Higgins advantage. On stage 7 they were again fastest followed by Wilks and Higgins and had the time differential to Higgins down to 10.2 seconds. At this point Keith was very upbeat about his chances as all the remaining stages were repeats of the earlier ones. Never having competed on them before he was confident that on his second run he could improve on his first times over them. On stage 8 Wilks, who was running first on the road, had a problem with the car and when he pulled over, a fire took hold and although all the following cars stopped and used their extinguishers on the fire, his car was completely gutted. As none of the lead cars now had fire extinguishers, it was decided that the following two stages be cancelled to allow the competitors get replacements. So with two stages remaining Mark Higgins led the rally from Keith Cronin. Certainly a sense of déjà vu as that was also the scenario entering the final pair of stages in North Wales on the opening round. That time the pair were separated by 9.5 seconds, this time it was 10.2. History was about to repeat itself as Cronin’s second run over the second last stage saw his stage time improve by 22sec and he trimmed Higgins’ lead to just 2.4 seconds. On the last stage Higgins improved on his previous time by 11 seconds, however Keith trimmed his own time by 18 seconds to beat Higgins by 4.4 seconds on the stage and by 2 seconds on the rally. A narrow victory maybe,but a decisive one!! 1. Keith Cronin/Greg Shinnors (Mitsubishi) 1h. 10m. 17.7s. Leaders After: |
