After a titanic battle, the Bulldog International
Rally of North Wales was won by Irishmen Keith Cronin and Greg Shinnors in
their Mitsubishi Evo 9 as they finished a narrow nine seconds ahead of former
champion Mark Higgins and co-driver Bryan Thomas in their Subaru Impreza N11 on
the 82-mile Bala-based event.
Cronin pushed Higgins (above) throughout the entire day in
a close battle, with Higgins having a three second advantage heading into the
sixth and final test after leading from the outset in the Wolverhampton and South Staffs Car Club event.
But Higgins encountered a
problem in the final stage when they hit a pothole and damaged the suspension,
which allowed Cronin to push ahead to claim his first ever victory in the UK
forests and maximum points in round one of the BRC on their debut in the
series.
The victory puts Cronin and Shinnors in the lead of
the British Rally Championship (BRC) and the driver, who crashed out of the
event in 2008, said, "It's not quite sunk in yet but I couldn't ask
for more really at the start of the season. We've never had any luck much over
in the UK until today, but luck was on our side. On the penultimate stage we
bent the back wheel and it was hard to drive but we made it."
Welshman Stuart Jones and co-driver Andy Bull were
third in their Mitsubishi and made it home despite having a roll on stage
three, in which they only sustained superficial damage, as well as a puncture
on stage one.
Fourth place went to Adam Gould and Sebastian Marshall in their
Subaru Impreza (below) followed by the Scottish pair of David Bogie and Kevin Rae in
their Mitsubishi and fellow Scotsmen Dave Weston Jnr and Neil Shanks in their
Impreza.
There were three winners in the Bulldog Historic
Rally, the opening round of the Dunlop/Gambia 2009 British Historic Rally
Championship.
Nick Elliot and Dave Price took the overall victory
in their Mk2 Ford Escort and claimed the win in Category D. They set the pace
over three of the four stages on the 50-mile event. Category C was won by
former British champion David Higgins and Ieuan Thomas in their Ford Escort,
who also finished fifth overall.
The crew had an off on one stage and lost a
bit of time. Higgins also battled on despite putting a metal rod through his
hand at work midweek and was driving more or less one-handed. Son and father
crew, Jonathan and Graham Gale, won Category B in their Sunbeam Tiger and were
15th overall.
The Bulldog Challenge followed the International
Rally over a shorter route and was won by Welsh crew Matt Edwards and Andy
Murphy who also took the honours in the Kick Energy Fiesta SportTrophy in their
Ford Fiesta ST. They finished a comfortable two and three quarter minutes ahead
of the Fiesta of Luke Francis and Jon Madoc-Jones.
The fourth and final event on the oversubscribed
rally was the Bulldog Clubman Rally, which featured many local club rally
drivers. Michael O'Brien and Ian Allsop took the honours in their Ford Focus
WRC. They finished over a minute ahead of the Ford Escort Cosworth of Ian Joel
and Graeme Wood.
The event was a credit to the organisers, who
turned it around into an International status event to be included in the
BRC in just five months since the last time it was run.
It was Clerk of the Course Kevin Witton's first
time in charge on an International event and he said, "It's
gone really well and it's been an exciting rally with the close battle for the
win. I'd like to thank all the marshals, organising committee, officials and
competitors for making it a good day and our sponsors Bulldog."
Bulldog International Rally Results:
1. Keith Cronin/Greg Shinnors Mitsubishi 1:20:59.7
2. Mark Higgins/Bryan Thomas Subaru 1:21.08.7
3. Stuart Jones/Andy Bull Mitsubishi 1:23:20.3
4. Adam Gould/Sebastian Marshall Subaru 1:24:09.9
5. David Bogie/Kevin Rae Mitsubishi 1:24:30.6
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