Robert Cronin to complete his debut racing season in Brands Hatch

BALLYLICKEY’S Robert Cronin rounds off his maiden season in the Porsche Sprint Challenge GB series at Brands Hatch this weekend.

Fourth place in the ninth round at Croft remains his best result to date in a season where he dovetailed racing with karting, winning the Rotax Max category in the latter that will see him race in the World Finals in Bahrain next December.

‘I’m looking forward to the last round of three races. At the start of the championship I really had no idea what to expect, now I know that qualifying is so important; you make a mistake and it will cost you a good few places on the grid, you really have to put in a good session.’

Cronin outlined the most difficult aspect of racing: ‘It’s actually passing cars. In comparison to karts, it’s almost impossible to pass, unless someone makes a mistake, that is why qualifying is so important.’

Although he has no plans for next season, he remains very focussed.

‘Right now, I just want to finish this weekend. Then, I am off to Bahrain for the Rotax Max World Finals in early December.’

That was Cronin’s prize for winning the Motorsport Ireland Rotax Max series where he won four of the six races. In terms of this weekend, there is one race on Saturday and two on Sunday at the Kent venue.

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The Motorsport Ireland Kart Championships concluded in WhiteRiver Park, Collon, County Louth on Sunday where Ballylickey’s Colin Cronin had to be content with third in the IAME X-30 Junior category while Ballymakeery’s Keith Grant won the Rookie category.

Cronin was one of three karters along with Kildare’s Jack Buckley (the grandson of Banteer’s Ger Buckley, who won the Cork ‘20’ several times along with the Rally of the Lakes and the West Cork Rally) and Antrim’s Luke Agnew in contention for the series.

A margin of just three points separated the trio prior to the final round that had 89 points on offer –34 for winning pre-final and 55 for victory in the final.  Buckley dominated the pre-final to claim pole with Agnew P2 on the grid and Cronin, who was very much in contention in the opening laps, slipping back to P5 for the final. Buckley led all through to take the chequered flag 0.971s in front of his brother Tadgh with Agnew finishing third and Cronin, a disappointing fourth. Buckley netted back-to-back titles, Agnew was second and Cronin third in the seven round IAME X-30 Junior campaign. Grant just needed to stay out of trouble to take the Rookie title. It’s worth noting that he had to compete all season long with the addition of 26kg ballast to comply with the minimum weight of kart and karter. Elsewhere, Clonakilty’s Ronan Hennessy, who switched to the IAME X-30 Seniors, was 12th and Ballyvourney native Anthony O’Conaill was sixth in the same category. Cronin and Hennessy will now compete in the World Finals in Portimao from October 23rd-28th and will test at the circuit next weekend.