THE start of a busy seven days for Ballylickey's Daniel Cronin begins with Sunday's Clare Rally, the penultimate round of the Triton Showers National Rally Championship.
This will also be of interest for the local Skibbereen and District Car Club, who host the eighth and final round of the national series.
It's not been a great season for Cronin, unlike the previous two seasons where he bagged back-to-back top three national rally championship finishes.
Expectations were reasonable for the current campaign with Cronin debuting his new Citroen C3 Rally2 on the Longford-based Midland Rally, the opening round of the campaign. He finished tenth in the season opener.
Cronin then competed in the Clonakilty Park Hotel West Cork Rally in order to get more seat time for the national series. Unfortunately, he rolled the car on the first night stage but re-joined the event under Super Rally and gained some valuable seat time. Sixth place on the Circuit of Kerry was followed by a disappointing outing in the Cavan Rally where he finished 11th overall.
With the series based on the best six results from eight events, retirement from the Waterford-based Raven's Rock Rally – after just leaving the start line – effectively ended his national championship bid. He didn't return to action for some six weeks, finishing ninth in the Oldcastle-based ALMC Hellfire Rally in mid-August.
Sunday's Clare Rally will be followed six days later by the two-day Wexford Volkswagen Rally, possibly the O'Connell Group Cork '20' Rally and his main target, the Fastnet Rally on the October bank-holiday weekend.
Cronin and his Castlemartyr co-driver Padraig O'Donovan are seeded at six in the Ennis-based event that consists of a loop of three stages (all within 15 minutes of Ennis) repeated three times.
Eight years ago, Cronin and Killarney co-driver Shane Buckley took a Ford Fiesta R5 to victory in Clare, however, much has changed in the interim as Cronin remarked.
'The pace is very strong now and having watched the DVD of the stages, it will be very tough. We need to build on the pace we had on the ALMC Rally and if we could get a top-five finish that would be good. We could build on that as we head to Wexford the following week,’ Cronin said.
Returning when results haven't gone his way can be frustrating, as he explained, ‘Look, it's baffling at times, it can be disheartening and it's hard to explain. From past experiences, it's always about seat time for me,’ Cronin explained.
‘Looking again at the in-car from the ALMC, I can see the time (where he can improve), I just need to be more consistent, but there are times when that is easier said than done.’
Kilkenny's Eddie Doherty (Skoda Fabia R5), who leads the championship, will be followed off the start line by title protagonists Monaghan's Josh Moffett (Hyundai i20 R5), Donegal's Declan Boyle (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2) and Derry's Desi Henry (Ford Fiesta Rally2), all hoping to remain in title contention for the Fastnet Rally.
Elsewhere, Dunmanway's Gerard O'Connell (Ford Escort) is also on the 124 car (+10 Dacia's) entry list and is seeded at No. 88, while Ballylickey's Robert Cronin has the No. 87 decals on the door of his Opel Corsa Rally4. Macroom's Barry O'Brien (Honda Civic) is seeded at No. 124.
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Meanwhile, seeding for the Wexford Rally was announced on Monday last with Cronin/O'Donovan occupying the number seven berth while Clonakilty's Cal McCarthy and his Rosscarbery co-driver Eric Calnan are seeded at 11 in their Citroen C3 Rally2. Another Clonakilty driver, Kevin Kelleher (Ford Escort) with Enniskeane's Sean Hayde calling the pacenotes, are seeded at No. 32
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The Sligo Pallets Irish Forest Rally Championship continues on Saturday with the Lakeland Rally in Enniskillen. Inchigeelagh co-driver Eamonn Creedon competes with Monaghan's Derek Mackarel (Ford Fiesta R5), the current national champions are 36 points behind series leader Tyrone's Jason Mitchell (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2), who is edging closer to this year's title.
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Elsewhere and with just four weeks remaining, plans for the O’Connell Group Cork '20' Rally, the final round of the NAPA Auto Parts Irish Tarmac Rally Championship, are at an advanced stage.
This year's event (October 4th/5th) will, once again, be based at the Cork Marts Complex at Corrin just outside Rathcormac and returns to its more familiar two-day format.
While it will be a challenging event, it's competitor-friendly with a compact format. The finish ramp celebrations are scheduled for 3pm on the Sunday. In the Historic section, Ardfield co-driver Anthony O'Sullivan is still capable of back-to-back titles while the husband-and-wife duo of Eamonn and Lisa McCarthy can still finish runners-up in the Modified category.
