Keith Cronin endured a torrid time during the first full day of the Rally of Scotland yesterday as his Scorpion debut at the wheel of a private Procar-run Abarth Grande Punto turned into a nightmare before finally ended with a crash on the fourth stage of the morning.

Keith Cronin endured a torrid time during the first full day of the Rally of Scotland yesterday as his Scorpion debut at the wheel of a private Procar-run Abarth Grande Punto turned into a nightmare before finally ended with a crash on the fourth stage of the morning.

The newly crowned British Rally Champion arrived in Scotland behind the wheel of a Super 2000 car for the first time, swapping his usual GpN Mitsubishi Evo for the Scorpion's offering to take in the Rally of Scotland as he weighs up contesting selected IRC rounds next year. With all the IRC titles already decided the factory Abarth squad stayed away from this season-closer leaving Cronin's private-entry as the sole Italian rally car on the start list.

Meanwhile for the first time in many years, some of Scotland’s finest forest stages have been playing host to an international rally. The RACMSA Rally of Scotland, final round of the 2009 Intercontinental Rally Challenge, kicked off in spectacular style at Scone Palace on Thursday evening, with the First Minister for Scotland, Rt Hon Alex Salmond, MSP, and Sir Jackie Stewart lifting the saltire on Alister McRae’s bright yellow Proton Satria.

Thursday evening got underway with a double superspecial and after posting the third fastest time on his first run Cronin dropped eight seconds on the final test to start the first full day of the rally yesterday from a promising solid eighth place overall. As the rally machines popped and banged their way around the opening two stages in the grounds of Scone Palace, noises were already being made about the mighty stages to come.

Greeting crews in Craigvinean forest yesterday morning was a glorious burst of sunshine, which, although only lasting a couple of hours, was enough to warm the faces of the crews as they headed out to tackle the opening 17 km stage, covered on live television by Eurosport. However there was instant disappointment for Cronin as he hit trouble in the Abarth Grande Punto S2000 on this opening test and the Irishman was eventually stopped for 45 minutes after a puncture threw him into a spin and got the Scorpion car stuck in a section of the stage where there was no help to be had from spectators. Cronin, and co-driver Greg Shinnors, eventually managed to get underway once again, but they were by now hugely in arrears. Then they lost more time with a puncture on the next test SS4, and it got even worse as the Irishman spun again on SS5, but he remained grimly determined to fight back from the tail end of the field. However it all ended with a crash on the following stage bringing Cronin's rally and Abarth debut to an abrupt end.

Meanwhile at the front of the rally Peugeot 207 S2000 driver Meeke had found himself unable to shake off the challenge of Guy Wilks' Skoda until the afternoon's return to the opening stage for SS7. And while Wilks was slowed while adjusting his lights in increasingly gloomy and misty conditions, Meeke stepped up his pace and won the stage by a full 15s over Alister McRae and Wilks, impressing many with his maturity and almost Loeb-esque command from the front. "I don't know what to say - we had a good run," admitted Meeke. "Malcolm Wilson was at the start of that stage and said to me 'you're not going to let Guy Wilks beat you, are you?' I said 'I'd better start driving then', so that one's for Malcolm."

Crowd favourite McRae in the Proton had expected to have his father Jimmy to open the stage in his 1988 Championship winning Sierra Sapphire Cosworth , but sadly the classic Ford was withdrawn after a transmission seal failure. Alister McRae, the 1995 British Champion gave a typically masterful display of driving, impressing with smooth lines as he cleared the mud off the stages for the following drivers. The leading independent driver is young Ulsterman Jonathan Greer who ended yesterday just 5.1s ahead of reigning Scottish champion David Bogie (23), both driving Group N Mitsubishis. Sixth and seventh places were taken by the more experienced Jock Armstrong from Scotland and Eamonn Boland from Ireland. In the classes, Estonian Martin Kangur leads Class 7 in his Honda Civic Type-R. Youngster Tom Cave leads class 3 in his Ford Fiesta, one place ahead of class 6 leader Kris Hall from Cumbria.

The rally enters its second day today with the crews pensive over the weather and the double-running of the live television stage in particular: the torturous Loch Ard stage - 33kms of twists and turns which last echoed to the sounds of rally cars over twenty years ago.