Cronin Motorsport are pleased to announce that Keith Cronin and navigator Barry McNulty will be competing in the Czech Republic on the Barum Rally on the final weekend in August.

They will be half of the official two-car Mellors Elliot Motorsport-Proton entry in a deal that was formulated in the last week.

The Barum Rally is, of course a round of the IRC and also a round of the European Championship so it will be the first time that Keith’s talent will be showcased to the wider European public.

The entire team for the event will be Irish, as former World Group N champion Niall McShea will be at the helm of the other Proton. McShea has a history with the Derbyshire team having famously driven a Proton Satria Neo S2000 on Rally Ireland in 2009. 

This year the team has entered selected rounds of the IRC in what is still essentially, a testing phase for the car. Proton are also contesting the 2010 Asia-Pacific Rally Championship where Alister McRae and Chris Anderson are the regular team drivers.

Speaking about the forthcoming drive Keith said “I’m delighted to have an opportunity to compete in the IRC with a manufacturer team and I’m very grateful to Chris Mellors for affording me this chance on the European Rally Championship. I am, of course, contracted to drive for Pirelli for this year and I must also thank them and TEG Sport for releasing me from my contract for this event and also for the good wishes that they expressed to me about the drive”.

Keith and Barry will more than likely have to fly to the Czech Republic directly from Belfast following the International Rally of Northern Ireland in order to join with the Proton team and complete some testing before starting their Recce for the event.