Ulster organiser: Moffett and Cronin’s withdrawals don’t affect event’s reputation
Ulster Rally Clerk of the Course Philip Murray insists the 2018 event was not devalued, despite the top two seeds failing to start.
Keith Cronin pulled his entry three days before the rally was due to kick off last weekend, and was quickly followed by Irish Tarmac frontrunner, Sam Moffett, who said the decision was work-related.
They were joined on the sidelines for the Northern Ireland Motor Club meeting by the Hyundai i20 R5 pairing of Robert Barrable, who had a broken leg, and Cronin’s stablemate Eugene Donnelly.
“It’s very, very disappointing that neither Keith nor Sam were here, but I don’t believe it devalues the Ulster Rally,” said Murray.
“Both of them would have been seen as potential winners of the rally, but we still had names like Desi Henry, Matt Edwards, Josh Moffett, Marty Mccormack and Jonny Greer doing it.
“You have to see the positives when something like this happens, and I suppose with Keith and Sam not starting, it helped to open up the field.”
Murray said with the season two-thirds completed some top names already had one eye on 2019.
“You tend to find that two or three will drop out – that’s par for the course,” he said. “Maybe they haven’t done as well as they would have liked at this point in the season and they don’t see the benefit of carrying on.
“The money they save by not doing the final rounds of the British or Irish Tarmac Championships can go towards their plans for 2019.”
The absence of Cronin and Moffett effectively rules both out of BRC and ITRC title challenges, respectively.