Four times British Rally champion Keith Cronin, from Ballylickey in West Cork, headed a family 1-2 in yesterday’s Rathkeale House Hotel Circuit of Munster Rally, leading from start to finish as he beat his younger brother by almost two minutes over the nine stages.
Keith, with regular co-driver Mikie Galvin, used the day to get more accustomed to his new Hyundai before the next cross-channel round as he mounts his defence of last year’s British series, while Daniel and his co-driver JJ Cremin in their Fiesta were more than half a minute ahead of third placed Ed Synan and Tom Collins in an Impreza.
LIMERICK M C RATHKEALE HOUSE HOTEL CIRCUIT OF MUNSTER STAGES RALLY AT RATHKEALE (ROUND 3 OF TOP PART WEST COAST CHAMPIONSHIP):
1 Keith Cronin/Mikie Galvin (Hyundai i20 R5) 60m 07s,
2 Daniel Cronin/J J Cremin (Fiesta R5) 62m 02s,
3 Ed Synan/Tom Collins (Impreza WRC) 62m 35s,
4 P J McDermott/Niall Burns (Impreza WRC) 64m 27s,
5 Colin Byrne/Eric Calnan (Escort) 64m 33s,
6 Mike Quinn/Tony Healy (Escort) 65m 18s,
7 Eamonn Daly/Brian Doherty (Lancer Evo) 65m 25s,
8 Tim Enright/Stephen Buckley (Escort) 65m 42s,
9 Vincent O’Shea/Sean Brunton (Escort) 65m 58s,
10 John Danaher/Martin Mulcahy (Escort) 66m 29s.
Historics: 1 Todd Falvey/Iarla McCarthy (Escort) 71m 16s.
Juniors: 1 Conor Murphy/Michael Hamilton (Civic) 33m 33s,
2 Kieran Reen/Andrew Cronin (Civic) 33m 43s,
3 Jason Farrell/Chris O’Callaghan (Civic) 35m 24s.
