Kerry Mini Stages Rally - 12 Nov 06

Posted: November 21, 2007 10:05 AM

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KEITH CRONIN A WORTHY WINNER
A brilliant weekend for Keith Cronin, with his first overall win on the Kerry Mini Stages Rally with Anthony O Conaill ,as usual, on the notes was capped off on Monday when it was announced that Keith had been selected for the final three of the prestigious Billy Coleman Award.

In the rally Keith took an early lead on stage one when,in spite of very wet conditions on the stage, they opted for cut slicks and found they worked very well and they took the stage win by 8 seconds from Kevin O Donoghue/Joe O Leary and Kevin and Martin Kelleher.

On stage 2 it was still very wet and although the Cork crew felt they were a little bit over cautious they managed to take another stage win,this time by just 3 seconds from Kevin Kelleher.

Kelleher turned the tables on them though on stage 3 when they gambled on slicks while Kevin picked an intermediate,the right choice considering there was more rain and the oil on the road in places did'nt make life easy anyway. It didn't help matters either when Keith and Anthony discovered they had punctured a rear tyre when they cut a corner a little too much. Kelleher was 5 seconds faster than Cronin on this stage but they still still held a six second lead heading for the final stage.

The final stage and a six second lead....there was nothing to do but go for it,and go for it they did! Keith said after the win "We drove as hard as we could and managed to take the stage by 4 seconds from an equally hard charging Kevin Kelleher,this gave us a winning margin of 10 seconds.

Clocking up our first overall win was brilliant but an added bonus is that it was on this rally that my Uncle, Denis Cronin, had his first overall win 16 years ago. We really enjoyed the battle with Kevin and Martin who,as always,pushed us to the limit."

As for the Billy Coleman award Keith is certainly worth his place with an excellent record of wins on both gravel and tarmac during 2007.As well as the overall win yesterday Keith finished 6th overall and won Gp N by 1 minute 22 seconds on the final round of the Dunlop National Rally Championship,The Fastnet Rally.

He also finished second overall in the Hankook Tyres National Forest Rally Championship having secured Group N wins on every round bar one,the Carrick-on-Suir Forest Rally where he slid into a ditch and couldn't get going again.

In Tipperary he finished second overall and won Gp N,in Wicklow 5th overall and won Gp N, In the Moonraker he finished 4th overall and again won Gp N,In the two day Cork Forest Rally he actually held the lead from stage 5 on day one until stage 12 on day two and eventually finished second to the Focus WRC of Stephen Moore,again taking the Gp N spoils by a respectable margin.

The final round of the championship in Killarney was also a round of the MSA Ancro championship and Keith finished 4th overall here,only being beaten by the Focus WRC's of Stephen Moore,Marcus Dodd and Steve Perez............not bad for an EVO 7.

This young driver certainly has the talent and drive to go all the way and anything that can help him along has to be welcomed.

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Results 1 Keith Cronin/Anthony O’Conaill (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 7 Gp N) 32m 24s,
2 Kevin Kelleher/Martin Kelleher (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 Gp N) 32m 34s,
3 Kevin O’Donoghue/Joe O’Leary (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9) 33m 02s,
4 Thomas Fitzmaurice/Fionn Foley (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 Gp N) 33m 15s,
5 Eamonn Daly/Dermot Horan (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 Gp N) 33m 47s,
6 John Kearney/Denis O’Connell (Escort 2.0) 34m 02s,
7 Alan Ring/Adrian Deasy (Subaru Impreza N12 Gp N) 34m 04s,
8 Fintan Canty/Denis O’Mahony (Escort 2.0) 34m 11s,
9 Mike Moloney/Marie Casey (Escort 2.0) 34m 14s,
10 Fergus O’Meara/Liam Brennan (Escort 2.0) 34m 23s.

Leaders After:
SS1-4 Keith Cronin/Anthony O’Conaill (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 7 Gp N)

Stage Winners
SS1 Keith Cronin/Anthony O’Conaill (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 7 Gp N)
SS2 Keith Cronin/Anthony O’Conaill (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 7 Gp N)
SS3 Kevin Kelleher/Martin Kelleher (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 Gp N)
SS4 Keith Cronin/Anthony O’Conaill (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 7 Gp N)

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Full Results
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Photos:
Rally Mad Motorsport Photography
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James Burkee Photography - www.jamesburkee.com

Video Clips
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Kerry Motor Club

• 2007 West Coast Rally Championship

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Pre Event News

• Preview
• Entry List
• Regulations available

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04/11/07
Preview
With just over a week to go to the Bio Tech Kerry Mini Stages Rally the organisers are putting the finishing touches to this extremely popular event. Clerk of the Course for the event Noel O’Connor is delighted to welcome back on board William Murphy of Banna Beach Holiday and Leisure Village and well known North Cork rally driver Tadgh Lenihan of Bio Tech Waste Treatment Systems. Rally Headquarters will once again be Banna Beach Holiday and Leisure Village with live bands and Djs in the bar all weekend to keep rally crews and fans entertained. Seeded at number 1 will be last years winners Kevin O`Donoghue/Joe O’Leary in a Mitsubishi Evo 9. The local Kilarney have had some excellent results over the past 12 months including winning the 023 tiles Southern Four Championship and finishing runner up to Colm Murphy in the Global Group Tarmac Championship. At number 2 is popular West Cork Brothers Kevin and Martin Kelliher (Mitsubishi Evo 9) followed at 3 by 2007 Top Part West Coast Champions Alan Ring/Adrian Deasy (Subaru N12B). At number 4 is Keith Cronin/Anthony O’Conaill (Mitsubishi Evo), the Cork crew had a terrific year in this years Forestry Championship having many top 3 finishes against some of the latest World Rally Car technology and are equally as quick on tarmac stages as they are on the loose surface of the forestry stages.

At 5 will be the 1st 2 wheel drive car of Anthony O’Halloran/Charlie Mc Enery (Opel Manta) followed at number 6 by local Kerry Motor Crew Mick Quinn/Sean Enright Ford Escort Mk11), and will be hoping to take overall victory on their local event. Ed Synan/Kieran Cusack (Ford Escort Mk11) are at 7 followed by last years 3rd overall Limericks Eamon Daly (Mitsubishi Evo 9). Seeded at Number 9 in his TLI sponsored Mitsubishi Evo 9 are Thomas Fitzmaurice co-driven by Fionn Foley and this crew are well capable of taking a podium place. Rounding off the top 10 are 2005 winners John Kearney/Dennis O’Connell (Ford Escort Mk11).

Outside the top 10 there are still many crews who can take a top 3 finish these include Adian Walsh/Jim” the great white” Casey, Ray Hillard/Senan Ragget, Gary Reidy/Pa Naughton, Fintan Canty/Denis O’Mahoney , Tadgh Lenihan/Tba, Charlie Hickey/Johnny Hickey, Dave Randles/John Young.

Some of the other top local crews taking part are Christy Carey/Richard Talbot (Subaru N11) Tommy and Mags O’Sullivan (Ford Escort), Mickey O’Connor/Sinead O’Keeffe (Mitsubshi Evo 7), Ger O’Brien/Siobhan Lynch, Paudie Casey/Keith Mc Carty.

Scrutiny once again will be in the NCT Centre Tralee in Tralee on Saturday the 10th.Parking restrictions will be in operation and all competing crews are asked to follow Marshals instructions when they arrive at scrutiny. There will be centralised service at Tralee Race Course on Sunday Morning and once again on Sunday afternoon.

First competing car will leave headquarters at Banna @ 09.45 and competitors will have a 10 min service before they compete on stage 1 & 2. They will then go to service in Tralee Racecourse @ 12.30. Competitors will then compete on stages 3 & 4 before they head back to Banna where a champagne reception will await the winners of the 2007 Bio Tech Kerry Mini Stages Rally.A full colour program which will include a full colour route map will be available from Friday the 9th in local shops around the Tralee area.


Top 20
Car Driver/Navigator (Make/Model) [Class] 1 O'Donoghue, Kevin/O'Leary, Joe (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9) [4]
2 Kelleher, Kevin/Kelleher, Martin (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9) [4]
3 Ring, Alan/Deasy, Adrian (Subaru Impreza N12) [4]
4 Cronin, Keith/O'Conaill, Anthony (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 7) [4]
5 O'Halloran, Anthony/McEnery, Charlie (Opel Manta 400) [14]
6 Quinn, Mike/Enright, Sean (Ford Escort Mk2) [14]
7 Synan, Ed/Cusack, Ciaran (Ford Escort) [13]
8 Daly, Eamon/TBA (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9) [4]
9 Fitzmaurice, Thomas/Foley, Fionn (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9) [4]
10 Kearney, John/O'Connell, Denis (Ford Escort Mk2) [13]
11 Walsh, Aidan/Casey, Jim (Ford Escort Mk2) [13]
12 Power, Shay/Walsh, Kevin (Ford Escort Mk2) [13]
14 Reidy, Gary/Naughton, Patrick (Ford Escort Mk2) [14]
15 Lyons, Sean/Devine, John (Subaru N12 B) [4]
16 Linehan, Tadhg/Tba, (BMW M3) [14]
17 Canty, Fintan/O'Mahony, Denis (Ford Escort Mk2) [13]
18 Hilliard, Ray/Raggett, Senan (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9) [4]
19 Hickey, Charlie/Hickey, Johnny (Ford Escort) [13]
20 McQuaid, Mick/Tba, (Ford Escort Mk2) [14]
21 Curley, Tom/Tba, (Mitsubishi Evo 9) [4]

Full Entry List on:

Kerry Motor Club

• 2007 West Coast Rally Championship

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15/10/07
Regs are now available for the Bio Tech Mini Stages Rally on the 11th November 2007 :

Details:

Kerry Motor Club

• 2007 West Coast Rally Championship