HRCA

Mondello - May 9^th

Historics

Race 1

By Gary Fox

Stephen Doyle secured the first race victory in the Historic class of the bumper two day meeting at Mondello.

It was an all Lotus Elan front row with the pairing of Stephen Doyle and David Kelly after the all important qualifying session.

Drivers faced extremely changeable weather conditions on the Mondello circuit, the early morning sessions saw torrential rainfall, leaving large patches of standing water on the track.

By early afternoon, the weather conditions had improved massively and drivers were treated to a completely dry track and perfect summer sunshine.  The vast swing between tropical sunshine and monsoon rainfall being par for the course at the Kildare track for a number of months.

Stephen Griffin in the MG Midget and Clive Brandon in the Lotus Europa made up the second row of the grid.

There was a number a notable absentees from the Historic field, including the indomitable Jackie Cochrane.

Cold tyres on lap one led to a spin for Stephen Griffin on lap one shunting him off onto the grass at Mazda corner.

This spin left him right at the back of the grid and ensured Griffin had to embark on an excellent recovery drive that was not for the faint hearted spectator.

The recovery was immediately put into action and within just two laps Griffin was rocketing back up the field, up to seventh spot from 11^th.

True to form, it was to be a race dominated by the two Lotus Elans and after just one lap, the pair of Doyle and Kelly had opened a sizeable lead from Clive Brandon back in third spot.

Edmund Cassidy and Matt Dunne from Artane were dicing further back as the field began to look a little ragged and the different engine sizes became evident as is the norm for the Historic class.

The racers had to display caution in the end section of the International circuit as an oil spill from the earlier Fiat race led to some tricky track conditions.

Griffin’s charge continued unabated, blasting past Edmund Cassidy at the start of lap four, braking late down into turn one, holding the racing line and emerging in front of the startled Sunbeam Tiger.

At the midway point, the race had established a pattern of predictability with Stephen Doyle opening up a 3.9 second lead on the chasing David Kelly.

As the race continued the field became even more extended with a number of cars, including Clive Brandon in third spot racing 22 seconds behind Kelly in second and 15 seconds ahead of Stephen Griffin in fourth.

Stephen Doyle took the race victory with a secure gap of six seconds back to David Kelly back in second who seemed to accept the fate of second place.

Clive Brandon never looked in any danger of conceding third spot after a comfortable drive, despite finishing a massive 38 seconds behind the second placed Kelly.

The only other action of note, involved a battle of the MG Midgets right at the back of the pack, with Barry Smith edging out David Moloney and Liam Ruth,

Star Performance: Stephen Doyle

Fastest Lap: Stephen Doyle 1:57.341

Final Classification

1. Stephen Doyle
2. David Kelly
3. Clive Brandon