MOTORSPORT Double Success for Irish Motorsport

In a great weekend for Irish motorsport, two Irish pairings won major rally championships in Britain and Italy and a Meath driver is the favourite to take an American racing title. Keith Cronin from Bantry and his Limerick co-driver Greg Shinnors scored their third International win of the year, the Trackrod Rally in North Yorkshire, to clinch the British Rally Championship, the first Irish crew to take the title since the legendary Billy Coleman, 35 years ago.

The 23 year old West Cork driver, the 2007 winner of the Billy Coleman Award for Young Rally Driver of the Year, won three of the six rounds in his Cremins Coaches Mitsubishi Evo 9 and finished second in two more behind three times champion Mark Higgins.

However, Cronin's retirement from the Ulster International last month put the Manx veteran ahead on points for the first time, and the final round came down to a winner takes all situation, with whichever of the rivals beat the other also taking the title.

Higgins brought out a brand new Subaru Impreza N15 in his efforts to claim a fourth crown, while the Irishman stayed with his regular machine and was the early leader, setting best times on the first two stages to open up a lead of 17 seconds over Higgins, who was in third place behind former champion Gwyndaf Evans in the latest model Mitsubishi Evo 10.

Delighted at his success, Cronin said last night "I pushed hard on the opening stages and got away from Mark". Although Evans later moved into the overall rally lead, Cronin pulled farther away from Higgins and when the Welshman lost time with a puncture, Cronin took control once more.

Starting the final stage, the Irish pair were an unassailable 36 seconds clear of Higgins, with Englishman Stuart Jones splitting them in second place, and although he had no realistic hope of pulling back that amount of time in an eight mile stage, Higgins went off the road and out of the rally, leaving Cronin and Shinnors to celebrate their tremendous achievement.

Farther afield, Kris Meeke and Paul Nagle won Rally San Remo in Italy in their Peugeot 207 to take the Intercontinental Rally Challenge even though one round remains next month. Their title rival, Czech ace Jan Kopecky, crashed out on the opening day leaving the Tyrone-Kerry combination in an unbeatable position.

In the United States, double Young Racing Driver of the Year Peter Dempsey from Ashbourne, Co Meath, scored his fifth win of the year at Road Atlanta to increase his lead in the Star Mazda Championship as it heads for its final round at Laguna Seca in California in two weeks.

Dempsey qualified in pole position ahead of Conor Daly, son of Ireland's former Formula 1 driver Derek Daly, and dominated the race, with Daly finishing in second place. Britain's Adam Christodoulou, who took third place, is the only one who could beat the Irishman to the title but sixth place for Dempsey would be enough to become champion.