Keith Cronin and lucky Supporters Club Member, Derry O'Brien took a dramatic last stage victory on the Kerry Mini Stages at the weekend. It was Keiths third consecutive win on the event which was the scene of his first ever rally victory in 2007.

With the serious business of the British Rally Championship out of the way for this year it was payback time to all the Cronin Motorsport Supporters Club Members whose funding made the year possible. Bantry man Derry O'Brien was the lucky winner of the prize seat with Keith when the Supporters Club end of year draw was held in October. At the time he was just recovering from a surgical procedure but vowed to be fit in time for the prize spin.

A number of people even tried to buy the prize from him but he was adamant as a lifelong rally fan that he was going to do his first ever rally and who better to start it with than the current British Rally Champion.

A spin on the first junction of the first stage cost them a little time and when they arrived at stage end they were in 4th place, 13 seconds behind the early pacesetter, Tomas Fitzmaurice. The second stage was little more than half the length of the first one and this time the were only 2 seconds off the pace but still 13 seconds behind new rally leader James Stafford in his nimble Darrian.

These two stages were repeated after service and on the repeat of the first one the Cronin Motorsport crew were fastest and they trimmed Staffords lead to 9 seconds. They also moved into third place, just 1 second behind the Escort of Mike Quinn. Few would have seen them as possible victors at that point as the 9 second gap seemed insurmountable on such a short stage.

As Mark Higgins can testify, Cronin should not be underestimated as he and his guest co-driver went fastest on the final stage by nine seconds to tie on time with Stafford. As tie-break rules stipulate that the fastest driver on the final stage wins, Keith and Derry were declared the Rally Winners.

It was Keiths sixth win of the season and it was the third one this year which was decided on the last stage.

Derry O'Brien was beaming from ear to ear at the ramp as he stated how he had enjoyed the event and how it was such an honour to sit with a driver of Keith's caliber. He now joins David Power(last years prize winner) with an enviable record of having won every rally ever entered!!