Ballylickey sensation Keith Cronin and Co-driver Greg Shinnors headed for Yorkshire last weekend in order to gain some further experience of the pace of the British Rally Championship. They had sampled at first hand the tenacity of the Championship regulars on the tarmac roads in Ulster, which was contested as it was also a counting round of the UK Mitsubishi 'Evo' Challenge 2008 and as contenders for that prize, they did their cause no harm by taking top points in a faultless drive.

Tackling the Yorkshire International Rally, however, also known as the 'Trackrod' was primarily to experience making pacenotes on a gravel surface for the first time (Pacenotes are provided to the competitors on the 'Evo' Challenge rounds), it also allowed them to gauge their gravel speed against the top British Championship contenders included the current champion, Guy Wilks and former champions Mark and David Higgins and Gwyndaf Evans.

They knew they would be at a major disadvantage on the faster sections as the car's ECU had to be re-mapped prior to the event in order to run on the Tesco pump fuel that is obligatory on the British Rally Championship. In order to ensure that the engine would be preserved for the remainder of the year it was mapped "on the safe side of conservative". However, they started off well enough and after 2 stages had slotted into 3rd overall. They were more than happy with this, being amongst such illustrious opposition.

They maintained this position over the next three stages despite the lack of power costing them 20 seconds on stage three where the very fast sections took their toll. Over the next few stages they moved into second overall as Mark Higgins suffered some minor technical problems, however their position was well justified as the rest of the field were left for dust by the leading trio.

Following service after stage six, Mark Higgins, as expected, re-claimed second place from the young Cork driver, as his 'works' car and vast experience of these stages made all the difference. The final stage was a re-run of stage 3 which the young Irish team had struggled with on the first run and again it proved costly as another 20 seconds was dropped. However they reached Parc Ferme in 3rd overall and in jubilant form, as this was a better result than they had been expecting albeit thoroughly deserved.

A technical infringement found in the steering of rally winner Guy Wilks' car subsequently saw him being excluded from the results, promoting Cronin/Shinnors to second place overall. This matter is under appeal.

Speaking after the event Keith Cronin said "To come here and finish without problems would have been acceptable to us, but to come here and be within 10s a stage of Guy Wilks on 7 out of 10 stages is unbelievable! I know that he has been excluded, and I don't want to comment on that as I believe it is the times on the stages which are the most important. Either way, Cronin Motorsport had a fantastic weekend and we would like to thank the Trackrod Motorclub and everybody who helped out on the day to ensure the rally was a success. Also a special thanks to our sponsors who made the trip possible!"