News

The Smartpart
ALMC Stages
Donagh Kelly plans to compete on the ALMC Stages 2016.
The Smartpart ALMC Stages Rally
takes place on July 3rd and will be
headquartered at the Castle Arch
Hotel in Trim, Co. Meath. Stage
rallying continues to be the most
popular form of motorsport in
Ireland and the progression of Kris
Meeke (Dungannon) and Craig Breen
(Waterford) to being front runners
in the World Rally Championship
(WRC) is likely to see interest in
rallying grow further during 2016.
This year’s rally is particularly notable
for the fact
that it sees the
combination
of three very
competitive
championships
into one event
as crews from
the Triton
Showers
National Rally
Championship
(Ireland), the
MSA Asphalt
Rally Championship
(UK) and the Loughran Signs
Midlands East Rally Championship
(Ireland) go head-to-head on the
boreens and backroads of Co.
Meath. The meeting of the three
championships will give rally fans the
opportunity to see state-of-the-art
World Rally Cars (as used by the top
WRC teams), the all-new R5 spec cars
(used in the WRC2 category), unusual
cars such as the Welsh-built Darrian
T90 as well as the clubman rally cars
SMARTPART
Both sides now...for Cronin
Keith Cronin native of Bantry, Co.
Cork and a three-time British Rally
Champion in 2009, 2010 and 2012 has
signed with the DGM Rally Team to
contest both the British and the Irish
Tarmac Championship. Cronin has
already laid down his mark in Ireland,
having already won the R5 category
in Galway. (see Galway International
Rally review in our TROA story)
“We already had the car, and with the
regulations allowing the R5 cars to be
the top class, this enabled us to keep
the costs down and compete in both
series. It’s geat to be back and we want
to have a good go again.” commented
Cronin.
Citroen’s arrival into the MSA
championship completes the full set
of current R5 cars in production as the
DS3 will go up against the Ford Fiesta,
Peugeot 208 T16, Skoda Fabia as well
as S2000 cars from Proton, Ford and
Skoda in the revitalised British MSA
series.
DGM stablemate
Jonny Greer will
also contest the
British and Irish
events in the
DS3 R5 and is
happy to be
a part of the
new-look BRC
series. “We are
both going to give it our best shot,
enjoy it and do the best we can. To be
able to bring the Citroën to the party
is great. The buzz around the series is
fantastic. I cannot remember it being
this big and exciting” enthused Greer.
News
that people are familiar with such as
the Ford Escort Mark II, Mitsubishi
Evo and many more.
Given the high caliber of competitors
who will be in attendance at the
Smartpart ALMC Stages Rally, Triton
Showers have very kindly sponsored
an “Inter-Championship Cup” which
will run on a UK vs Ireland basis. The
winning nation will be calculated by a
matchplay-style points system, similar
to that used in golf ’s Ryder Cup, with
the winning team taking the trophy
home.
Entries open on May 23rd for The
Smartpart ALMC Stages Rally.
Further information can be obtained
from the Club PRO (pro@almc.ie)
or via the ALMC club website www.
almc.ie. Facebook and Twitter pages.
ALMC club meetings take place on
the first Wednesday of every month at
the Castle Arch Hotel in Trim and new
members are always very welcome to
attend.
Keith Cronin will have a busy schedule for
2016 with Citroen.
Photo: Kevin O’Driscoll
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