BALLYLICKEY’S Robert Cronin secured a brace of podium finishes in the Protyre Motorsport Ginetta GT Championship at Brands Hatch last weekend.
In what was the penultimate event of the series, Cronin took the Elite Motorsport V8-powered Ginetta G56 GTP8 to third place in Saturday's race. He went one better on Sunday finishing behind E3 Sport driver Jack Collins, who won both races.
From P4 in Saturday's race Cronin was quickly into P3 off the start line, although he reckoned he should have picked up another place.
‘Brands (Brands Hatch) is a fast, flowing track and everyone is quickly into a rhythm, you then have to wait for someone to make a mistake and that didn't happen in that race,’ Cronin told The Southern Star.
Lining up in P5 for Sunday's race that was of a 40-minute duration with a mandatory (60 seconds) pit-stop, Cronin was into third from the rolling start when front row qualifier Nick White (Raceway Motorsport) spun and went off into the gravel down Paddock Hill bend.
The Ballylickey driver was side by side with Cameron Pratt-Thompson at the exit of Druids but had to yield. Within an instant at Surtees, championship leader Archie Clark had slipped ahead of both of them with Cronin into third just before the safety car was deployed.
With about 18 minutes remaining and with the pit-stop window open Cronin lost third spot to Cameron Pratt-Thompson. Pitting with some 16 minutes of the race remaining, Cronin had a great pit-stop with his team judging everything to perfection. He made up 3.5 seconds on Clark to move into second behind race leader Jack Collins with Clark and Pratt-Thompson third and fourth respectively.
Although Clark closed the gap to Cronin, the West Cork driver wasn't distracted by his rival and kept his composure to secure second place, less than eight seconds behind Jack Collins (E3 Sport).
In terms of the championship, Cronin – second in the series – has narrowed the deficit to Clark – grandson of the legendary Roger Albert Clark – to 37 points with one round (two races) remaining. The series concludes on the first weekend of October at Donington Park.
‘We all have to drop scores – one feature race (40 minutes) and two of the sprint (20 minute) races. Mathematically, it's still possible to win the championship but it's going to be hard. We will need a good haul of points,’ said Cronin, who also outlined his plans for the rest of the season.
‘I will compete in the Clare Rally next week and also in the Fastnet Rally in the Opel Corsa Rally4 car. I also have one round of the Irish Forest Rally Championship, the Donegal Forest Rally that has been re-scheduled for November 8th.’
Meanwhile, Robert's younger brother Colin was also competing in Brands Hatch in the Ginetta Junior Championship with Elite Motorsport and was fifth in all of his three races. That series also concludes with the event in Donington Park.
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The furore surrounding the Galway Mini Stage Rally came to an end earlier this month when Motorsport Ireland advised both the Skibbereen and District Car Club and the Munster Car Club that, following communication from the Galway Motor Club, the event would not be going ahead.
For several weeks the Skibbereen and Munster clubs were involved in discussions with the Galway club. At one time a date of October 12th was slated but this, not surprisingly, generated objections from both the Skibbereen and Munster clubs.
Subsequently, a date of November 16th found favour with all three clubs and senior officials within Motorsport Ireland only for objections from the Donegal and Killarney clubs to derail the proposal.
Although those issues were sorted and the November date was back on the table, it appeared the directors of the Galway club were not in favour of the November date and plumped for the October 12th date. Then, almost out of the blue, Motorsport Ireland announced that the event would not be going ahead, putting an end to this whole saga although at the time Motorsport Ireland gave no reason for the change of mind.
However, The Southern Star queried the situation with Motorsport Ireland. A spokesperson for the governing body said that Motorsport Ireland offered to reimburse the club with the monies they had paid prior to the postponement of the Galway International Rally last February – due to Storm Éowyn – provided they withdrew the Mini Stage Rally. This offer was accepted by the Galway club. The MI spokesperson also advised that while the Galway International Rally remains postponed – in accordance with the rules – it will automatically be cancelled on December 31st next.
