On Board with Keith Cronin – BRC '09.

Following our successful venture to “Trackrod Rally Yorkshire” in September '08, Cronin Motorsport was destined for a full “BRC” campaign in 2009.  It was felt that this championship offered the best platform for Keith to progres as it is regarded as second only to the WRC.  All events offer a full recce and it consists of 3 tarmac rounds and 3 gravel rounds – so you have be competitive on both surfaces.  Each round is unique in its' own right and like any championship you need to learn it, so the plan was to do the BRC for 2 or 3 years.  However the young man from Ballylickey had other ideas and fast-forwarded that plan!! 
This takes you through our season from the hot seat, so “tighten your belts and keep the head down”.........................

The Bulldog Rally North Wales on Saturday 28th of March was the curtain raiser, we got a  shock the week of the rally discovering that we were seeded at number 2.  This did not unsettle the team, it was the opening round and the aim was to get a solid score.  The Bulldog was the final round of the Evo Challenge the previous October so Keith had some feel for the Welsh Forests.  There were 6 stages with 80 stage miles and only 2 stages repeated.  Recce went well on Friday and we finished mid afternoon so it gave us plenty of time to relax before the start on Saturday morning.  It was bitterly cold in Bala at the start and nobody knew what lay ahead for BRC '09 – Mark Higgins was there in his trusty “old car” (N11 Impreza) and would be the man to beat.  Following the 3 time champion was a plethora of young guns with Stuart Jones, David Bogie, Adam Gould, Dave Weston, Euan Thorburn, Alister Fisher, Jonny Greer and ourselves.  Arriving at the finish of Stage1 we saw Higgins was there waiting for our time – I'm sure he got a shock (as did we) realising that he was a mere 1.1 sec faster than us.  On Stage2 we took 1.1 back off him so at first service we tied for the lead while the others were 20 secs in arrears.  Mark had 2 off us on Stage3 and 7.5 on stage4 so at the final service with two stages remaining we were down 9.5 secs. 

Nothing wrong with a second on round one?  Of course not but there was 32 stage miles left and Keith had his own plan, which nobody knew of, only that he asked Danny (his Father) to take out one spare.  We had a real good go at stage 5 and took back 6.5 secs, bent a rear arm in the process but said nothing.  Now the pressure was on Higgins - he was only 3 secs up going into the final 15 mile stage in his own back yard.  Both ourselves and Mark did damage in the same rut late in the stage, he punctured and we bent a front arm.  Luckily we made it to the finish - 11.8 up winning the rally by 8.2 secs – who would have predicated that and to cap it all off Keith got the Pirelli Star Driver “Yellow Jersey”.  How did I celebrate? No such luck - Sunday morning I was in the garage fitting axle bushes to a fiesta van for my brother!

Next was the long trek to the unforgiving Kielder Forests for the “Pirelli International Rally”.  This was a much tougher event in every respect.  Keith left home at 05:30 on the Thursday, drove to Belfast, sailed across to Stranraer and drove to Carlisle.  We got to Carlisle at approx 5pm, put our faithful '94 Corolla into to gravel spec (changed tyres!), went for dinner then onto recce sign on at HQ later that evening.  Recce started 30 miles away at 7am Friday morning, it was a tough day and didn't go as well as it should have, I didn't make a great job writing a crucial stage and we suffered on the second pass.  We finished at 14:30 but there wasn't much time to relax with the rally starting at 18:00 that evening.  No sooner had our rally started and it was nearly over – we were off the road on the third corner and lucky to get away with it – we needed to settle down.  Approaching the last junction I noticed Keith going for the handbrake, this was out of character and sure enough we almost spun exiting the junction – we got away with that too!!  Thankfully we made it through stage 1, settled on stage 2 and were very grateful to be fourth overnight, as you don't usually get a second chance in “Killer Kielder”. 

Saturday morning was much better, Keith was in the groove and knew what had to be done, setting second fastest time on stage 3 we started to close in on third placed Philip Morrow.  Unfortunately Philip crashed out on stage 5 elevating us to third, Keith now had second placed Mark Higgins in his sights.  We set fastest times through stages 6 and 7 reducing the deficit to Higgins to 10 secs.  The rally turned on it's head when leader Guy Wilks' Proton S2000 clipped a bank on stage 8, bent the exhaust pipe, melting the rear bumper a few miles later the car was engulfed in flames.  The top crews stopped to help with their extinguishers but to no avail and the car burned out.  The following two stages were cancelled as we returned to service for replacement extinguishers.  Yet again the scene was set for a Higgins / Cronin showdown on the final two stages.  We took back 7.8 secs on the penultimate stage so the gap was down to 2.4 secs going into the final test.  I knew the way Keith attacked the first corner that he was gone up a cog or two and I only hoped I could stay with him.  That last stage was phenomenal every slide was perfect Keith was on fire - I knew Higgins wouldn't beat us on the stage but didn't know if this was enough to win - I didn't care this was poetry in motion and I was just lucky to be part of it.  We took 4.4 secs off Mark claiming the victory by just 2secs.  The Pirelli win was the sweetest of all, it consolidated our Bulldog win, Mark acknowledged that he had no problems and couldn't go any harder.  Personally I never had made it to first service in Kielder let alone get to the finish so to win the rally was awesome!

Following the opening two rounds on the loose, the championship switched to the tarmac lanes on the Scottish Borders for the “Jim Clark” rally.  Keith is comfortable on either surface so he was certainly up for a race on the black stuff.  However Mark has vast experience of this event, renowned for it's slippery roads so we needed a dry event.  Recce went fine on Thursday, we had an official shakedown Friday morning before the ceremonial start in Edinburgh that evening followed by 6 stages north of Duns / Kelso.  Our first stage was the regular unsettled over-driving start so we were happy to be only 5 secs in arrears.  Stage two was the mammoth “Abbey Saint Bathens” which offers a bit of everything including lots of high-speed stuff.  Keith was relaxed as we embarked on this landmark stage and we were carrying plenty of speed until we clipped a rock suffering a left front puncture.  We limped through the stage dropping almost two minutes and falling off the leader board.  What followed was a “Colin McRae” like recovery as Keith set his mind to clawing his way back into contention.

Despite a half spin on the spectator stage in Duns we made back 40 secs on the remainder of Friday night.  Starting day two we held fourth and trailed leader “Higgy” by 1 min and 20 secs.  Keith turned in fastest time stage after stage while Mark had an intermittent diff problem.  At the final service with three stages to go we trailed Mark by a slender 2.6 secs – a sensational comeback showing Keith's great resolve to keep the pressure on and it looked like three in a row was possible.  That final service proved critical as traditional Jim Clark rain loomed making tyre choice a lottery.  We pushed hard through stage 15, grip seemed fine until we got caught out on a fast approach to a tight right hand corner.  Keith pulled the handbrake and we escaped without a scratch dropping five secs to our rivals.  Keith had no confidence in the grip levels so we resigned ourselves to second.  We managed fastest time on the final stage finishing second 10 secs in arrears but still leading the BRC by two points.

“Rally Isle of Man” was the fourth round, the “Experts” had us written off ever before we landed on “The Rock”.  We had competed on the Manx National in '08 so Keith was unphased by this specialised event.  Recce was torture - from 07:00 – 19:30 on the Thursday, lots of stages with lots of restrictions (you could only do certain stages at certain times, in certain directions etc – so you needed a recce plan before you started).  As always we needed the first stage to get in the groove so dropping 5 secs to Mark was quite acceptable.  Stage two was a legendary stage known as “The Curraghs” starting on a very narrow twisting section opening to fast stuff, followed by a few junctions followed by some absolutely flat out stuff.  We took 8 secs off Mark moving into a 3 sec lead – game on!  We set fastest time again on stage3 as Mark spun off briefly, at first service Keith Cronin was the surprise leader 18 secs up on native Higgins.  Stage four was the longest of the championship a 22 miler, Keith planned to consolidate his lead while Mark desperately needed to make amends.  Everything in the “Cremin Coaches” Evo 9 was taken in fifth gear, all was well until a “3R 3L” the road narrowed and we clipped the bank (still in fifth gear I might add) this was a monumental moment but we got away with it only dropping four secs to Mark.  Unfortunately the impact from the bank burst the rear diff on the next stage, we scraped through dropping a minute, thankfully we made it to service and the “TTec” team changed the unit.  Like the previous round Keith set about clawing his way back.  At the end of leg service Higgins led by a minute but the word was that a routine gearbox change went wrong and he had no clutch facing day two.

Over four stages Saturday morning we reduced the deficit by 55 secs as Keith set a blistering pace while Mark struggled without a clutch (he got stuck on a bank on stage15 and our supporters pushed him bank on the road!).  As we waited to start stage18 “Round Table” the rain came.  This happens to be the most lethal stage on the island in the wet and in true sportsmanship Mark advised Keith of the really bad places.  We never drove so slow and still spun, later in the stage we mysteriously suffered a left front puncture and dropped over 1 min 30 secs.  This was very frustrating as we could not account for it and now Mark was away in front.  We set fastest time on the final two stages  but Higgy took the laurels.  However the Manx man said it was his toughest win as Keith pushed him all the way.  One of the funniest moments of the year was on the Saturday we were flat to the board (over 130 mph) and I got a little too far ahead on the notes (there was something serious coming and I needed to get it out) all I heard from Keith was “Greg I don''t know where your gone” but he never lifted!!  Just shows how cool, calm and collected he is - any other driver would have been a lot more vocal.

Despite the fact that Antrim is 300 miles from Ballylickey The Ulster was dubbed as our home rally and it felt like it too, being the only round that we didn't have to get a boat to.  The organisers moved the event to a new base with fresh stages so the event was neutral for Mark and Keith as they tied for the championship lead entering the penultimate round.  Recce was on Thursday from 08:00 – 22:00, we needed all this time to cover the sparse route.  We had a few runs on the Shakedown Friday morning this helped settle everything before the mid afternoon ceremonial start.  We drew first blood, 6 secs up on stage one while Mark took almost 6 secs off us on the following stage.  “Torr Head” was the third stage, a very fast and technical piece of road, we had 10 secs off Mark arriving at first service with a ten second advantage.  The repeat loop was more nip and tuck through stage 4 and 5 but we ran out of road on stage6.  About a mile from the end the back of our Lancer got light over a crest and broke away.  Keith stuck with it and almost got it back until we clipped a bank and took out the right front corner.  Our rally was over but all was not lost as there points and a half for the final round.  Despite Mark Higgins/ Bryan Thomas winning in Ulster it was a case of “Winner takes all” in Yorkshire.

The final round saw a return to the forests for the “Trackrod Rally Yorkshire” on Saturday 26th September.  This was the first round that we had done the previous year so we had notes for some of the stages.  Recce was straight forward so too was the rally – we only had to win to be BRC Champions, to be the first Irish crew in 35 years to win the BRC – no pressure at all!!  One of the nicest moments of the year for me was on the Friday night I spoke with Danny and he said “We don't know what will happen tomorrow, but the main thing is to enjoy it” This was a breath of fresh air and proved yet again that the Cronin Family are ordinary decent people with no airs or graces.  The Trackrod was going to be a sprint through the Dalby Forests but none of us were aware of Keith's tactics – we never are he just does his thing!  Usually he's smooth off the line, works his way up the gears, eventually pulls fifth and then take we everything in fifth - just like that!  It's a bit like “Driving miss daisy” there's no drama he just lets the car do the work and it's magic.  However I knew it was a different story as soon as we left the line on the first stage in Yorkshire – he went absolutely insane and I couldn't see how we were going to come out it but we did, despite coming into a “5R 5L” about 40mph too fast!!  At the end of the stage I said “You went insane” he just laughed and said “You're getting too old!”.

Higgins switched to the newer model N14 Impreza for the final round and had done an extensive test so he was pulling all the stops out.  But it was the young West Cork man who emerged from the first stage with a 13 sec advantage.  We took a further four secs on the second stage and after that Keith controlled the rally from the front.  We held a 36 sec advantage going into the final stage and merely had to stay on the road to be crowned BRC Champions.  Unfortunately Higgins / Thomas crashed out but were unhurt, this left us to coast through the last 3 miles – probably the hardest 3 miles of the year and the rest is history.  When we came to the stop car there was a crowd of Cronin Motorsport Supporters waving tri-colours and cheering like mad, next thing I knew they had Keith shoulder high!  The reception at the finish ramp was fantastic, the Irish took over Pickering Show ground and a great night followed.

There was a home coming party in Ballylickey on the Monday evening, this was mind blowing and a great show of community spirit as money could not buy what happened in West Cork that night.   Ten days after winning the BRC Keith won the Pirelli Star Driver Shoot-out in Sweet Lamb so he has a fully funded drive in this year’s BRC to defend his title.  Keith Cronin has hopefully inspired other up and coming young guns to realise their dreams, proving that it can be done on a limited budget, once you have the passion, commitment and the right people around you. None of this would have been possible without our team; Danny & Denis, Mick Cremin, Colm Grant (Ttec), James Lucey, Tadgh Kelleher, David Hurley, Anthony Henegan and Kieran O'Callaghan. 

Cremin Coaches, Bluelite Windows and of course the Cronin Motorsport Supporters Club were vital to keep the momentum going.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Keith for having me on board, I'm just lucky to be part of such a close knit team.  I spent a lot of time preparing for events and a lot of time away so thanks to Elaine for her support(amid all this rallying we were building a house!), my parents Joe and Hilary and my brother Joe for always being there.

Finally I wish to thank everyone who supported and texted us throughout the season because we are all club competitors and win lose or draw we have to go to work Monday morning.

Thank You.

Greg Shinnors.

This article was written by Greg for CarSport Magazine