Leo’s Blog May 2011
http://blog.askracing.com/?p=177
Despite the whole country being in financial turmoil, grids are good and we are being treated to some wonderful racing at Mondello so far in 2011. Last weekend, it was a win apiece for Martin Treacy and Barry Rabbitt in ITCC, another Vee win for Lee Newsome and Kevin Sheane was again top of the pile in Formula Sheane. Business as usual then, one might think? Well not really, as new contenders impressed in all three classes and could challenge the regulars shortly.
Kevin Sheane made a flier of a start in Formula Sheane, with Anton Savage following him by the slow starting poleman Brian Hearty. Hearty fought back immediately however and was already alongside Savage as the pack appeared over the crest out of Bridgestone corner for the first time. In the resultant territorial dispute, Hearty was launched skywards and by the time he regained the track (strong cars, these Formula Sheanes), the leaders, and most of the rest were long gone. Savage pushed hard to close the gap to the leader but each time he closed it, young Sheane replied with a quick lap and as a result, the gap remained pretty much static for the duration. The real interest in this one though, was the winner of Mondello’s recent Become a
Looks like he really has "Become a Racing Driver"- Competition winner Sean Hynes.
Race Driver competition, Sean Hynes. The Foxford man fought off allcomers to win a season in Formula Sheane courtesy of Mondello Park and Sheane cars and he repaid both with a superb drive on his Mondello debut. Qualifying seventh, he climbed to fifth early on (admittedly helped by Hearty’s demise) but as the race progressed it became clear he was running there on merit. His times came down by a tenth or so a lap and he made no mistakes, unlike some of the class regulars. Undoubtedly a worthy competition winner and one I will definitely be keeping an eye on as the season progresses. Well done Mondello & David Sheane!
The car everyone is talking about- Jonathan Brady's Seat Supercopa. Image from Chester.ie
All eyes were on the Treacy vs Rabbitt battle in ITCC but Jonathan Brady very nearly spoiled the party with his newly acquired Seat Supercopa machine. Fresh in from the UK, it was instantly on the ultimate pace and as Brady becomes more accustomed to it, it will definitely be a regular thorn in the side of the series pacesetters. Brady and Treacy tangled in race one, allowing Rabbitt’s ticketfriend.com CRX to escape at the front. The sinister Westward RS500 charged back though and even with flames shooting from the exhaust and big black lines being left on Mondello’s tarmac, had to settle for third. Gareth Hayden’s Sportchip.ie Integra also ran very well and showed genuine pace in the main (Super Touring) class, whilst the ever spectacular Ciaran Timmons actually hung onto Rabbitt in the early stages before his smokey Integra finally gave up the ghost. His usual sparring partner Phil Brennan had a fraught weekend with setup issues on his M3 but still did well to lead the big boys in the early stages of the reverse grid race two. In the Touring Class there were great battles between Eric Carroll, Keith Rabbitt, Rob Savage and Norman Fawcett, all Integra mounted. Fawcett scored a popular first win in race one, whilst Fran Kearns’ Civic dominated race two with Fawcett just coming out tops of a fraught battle with Savage for second.
The gaps at the front of the Vee grid after qualifying are usually counted in milliseconds but in wet conditions, reigning champion Ray Moore somehow hustled his Leastone round the International circuit 2.4 seconds ahead of the rest! (Yes, two point four seconds!) Come race time, in better conditions, Moore led the grid away and eked out a small lead but series leader Lee Newsome gradually closed the gap, setting a new lap record on the way, and managed to snatch the lead with a great move at Biranne’s Bends. Moore tried all he knew and then some to regain the lead but Newsome, who is fast becoming the complete package, had it all in hand to take the flag and with it, an extended championship lead. Rob Casey had qualified down in twelvth place but drove superbly to battle his way back up to fourth by the end. Dan Polley showed the beginning of a return to his 2010 form with a good run to break away from the hectic 4th place battle and return to the podium for the first time this year. His team mate, young Kevin O’Hara suffered problems in
The Formula Ford like cockpit of Kevin O'Hara's LOH-modified Leastone.
qualifying, starting 26th and last but predictably charged up through the grid to 8th at the flag. Interestingly, his fastest lap was less than a tenth shy of Newsome’s new record despite the traffic so expect Formula Vee to be even closer at the next round! Next round, incidentally, is at Kirkistown in a coupla weeks time, where John Downey won the first round earlier in the year. Downey will be keen to regain this form but he won’t have it easy, especially as his team mate Paul Heavey will surely be looking for a return to his usual frontrunning form after an unusually uncompetitive run last weekend. Moore has always been quick there though but Polley has too, and Dave Kelly could be a contender, it’s anyone’s guess. Formula Vee is probably the only class you could probably run a book on – it is genuinely that close this season! (I can almost see it now- Newsome 2-1, Moore 5-2 and the rest of the grid 3-1!)
A good grid of HRCA cars turned out with a few newcomers too. None, however could get close to Alan Kessie’s ASK racing Gryphon C73. The unusual front engined Clubmans car sprinted away from the pack in both
This is the view the rest of the HRCA field had of Alan Kessie's Gryphon last weekend. Superb shot from chester.ie
races, although Jackie Cochrane’s V8 Tiger took fastest lap in race two as he continued his relentless pursuit. Further back, Tommy Doherty duelled with fellow 1970′s Formula Fordster Billy Crosbie with John Cardoo and Bernard Foley right in there too. Noel Collins’ box-arched Mk2 Escort had plenty of pace too and thrilled the fans as he three wheeled his way round Mazda corner en route to a 5th and 6th.
The Fiats made up for small grids with some great racing and Barry Hallion and John McCormack had what was probably the battle of the day in race two for the Punto win. With Hallion’s Alistair Kellett run car back on form after some early season problems, he led early on. McCormack grabbed the lead at least twice in the late stages but Hallion was back at the front on the last lap. He was a little too defensive on the approach to Dunlop on the last lap though and McCormack got alongside on the drag to the flag. Hallion hung on, but only just with McCormack later reporting a problem selecting third as he came out of Dunlop! Gary Cunningham’s immaculate Team.ie car had initially led race one before dropping back and suffered similarly in race two. Knowing “Rocky” though, the car is probably reduced to component form as I type and he will be back at the front before long! Fiat Motorsport Club Chairman Barry-John McHenry was also out for the first time in a 1400 Punto and shocked all the regulars by qualifying Samantha Kellett’s car on pole in mixed conditions! He felt the engine went down on power during the day though and finished well back. Coilin Clinton maintained his unbeaten record in Unos in 2011 with two wins; the difference this time being that there were actually some other Unos entered. Gary Owens ran Clinton close in race two, leading early on and closing the gap again towards the end. Aimee Woods was out with new backing from protune.ie but despite running second early on in race one, the engine gradually lost power before expiring with just a lap to run. Luckily for her, Daddy Sean knows more than a little bit about Uno engines so we should see her back on the grids again soon. Class co-ordinator Vicky Reilly is trying hard to increase Punto numbers and hopefully at the next round we should see two or three extra entries and maybe an Uno or two also. Mark Snelling is also bringing his UK spec Uno across the water for the next meeting in June and that should be interesting as the last time he ran with the Irish cars, he gave some of the Puntos a really hard time- and they were on slicks back then!
Alan Watkins returned to form at Mondello with a fine win. Image from Chester.ie
Alan Watkins showed a return to form in Strykers, qualifying on pole but in race one, even he had no answer to Simon Redden. Redden won as he pleased, smashing the lap record for good measure as well! With Redden not finishing race two, Watkins returned to the top step of the podium, finishing ahead of Paul Yeomans with Des Bruton in third. Former Mondello track team member Brian Kingston continued his learning curve, also carrying new sponsorship on his immaulate machine. He has attracted backing from RetroCars the sports and classic restoration specialists and again squeezed into the top ten in race one.
A delighted Barry Hallion with his "Driver of The day" award!
I introduced a new award at the last meeting. Matt and I usually pick a driver of the day so Leo’s Blog & ASK racing have sponsored a trophy which we will award at each Mondello meeting. The first winner is Barry Hallion, although we did consider sawing the trophy in two and giving half to John McCormack too!
That’s about it for this one folks, keep the information coming in. It’s a motorsport free weekend for me this weekend but The Vees are heading back to kirkistown in a few weeks so I might venture up to have a looksee. Hopefully I won’t return on crutches this time though!
Leo
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