A troublesome opening stage of the day on Trackrod Rally Yorkshire put paid to the 2022 British Rally Championship hopes of Keith Cronin and Mikie Gavin. Rainfall arrived while the BRC crews were awaiting the start, and Cronin found that the tyre he had chosen in the earlier dry conditions was no longer suitable. The result was a spin and an overshoot in the muddy conditions, and an unsurmountable time loss of 23 seconds.
Having held second place overnight, the Cork-Kerry duo dropped to third in the Trackrod timesheets, and were unable to recover the lost ground over the event’s remaining 36 or so competitive miles, despite taking fastest time on the final stage. Being seven points off the championship lead going into the event, they had to win in Yorkshire to bring the title battle to the final round next month.
Welshman Osian Pryce, and his Killarney co-driver, Noel O’Sullivan, led the rally throughout, and took their maiden BRC title with one round to spare. Pryce has finished as championship runner-up on three previous occasions.
Ruairi Bell and Max Freeman finished the rally in second place in their Skoda Fabia R5, their best result of the season so far.
Cronin was quick to offer congratulations to the new champions: “Osian and Noel have been outstanding all year, they thoroughly deserve their British Championship. It has been a pleasure to compete against them, we had good craic with them on the rallies, it was like a group of friends meeting up really”.
