Fantastic First Mondello Meeting!
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What a fantastic day at Mondello last Sunday. Beautiful weather, great crowds and best of all some fantastic racing. With testing having been so close in many of the classes, there was great anticipation as the various cars took to the track for qualifying- with the pitlane timing screen being overcrowded for most of the morning. Formula Vee numbers may be down but the quality certainly isn’t. Rob Casey qualified on pole with an incredible 60.8 lap! Such was the pace of the air cooled single seaters that the top twelve were all under the 62 second barrier. It doesn’t seem that long ago that a 62.0 would have easily got pole in a Vee race, or maybe I am just getting old? The main talking point of the Vee paddock after qualifying was the fact that title favourite Dan Polley languished back in seventh and also that incredibly impressive newcomer Ian Campbell was just behind him in eighth, both ahead of round one winner John Downey. As the race got underway, it was clear nobody was going to make a break as the top seven or eight cars battled away. The big movers early on were Trevor Delaney and Paul Heavey in the works Leastone who performed an impressive move round the outside at Mazda corner a number of occasions. As the race
A pensive Paul Heavey before Vee qualifying.
settled it became a straight fight between Lee Newsome and Ray Moore with Heavey closing on both of them. Heavey looked like he might threaten Moore before a spin at turn three- newly renamed Bridgestone corner, dropped him back. He later blamed a brake problem for this. Moore shadowed Newsome in the closing stages but failed to make a move stick and they finished in that order with Robbie Allen in third. Polley spent a frustrating race staring at Delaney’s gearbox, even investing a LOH modified nosecone in his efforts to get by, eventually coming home fifth.
The ITCC as ever, brought huge support to Mondello and there are a number of new drivers in 2011 too. This can only be good news for Mondello and for Irish motor racing in general. The Uno/Punto class are in trouble with only
Gary Cunningham's immaculate Team.ie Punto tackles the Esses.
five Puntos and one Uno entered. They were run with the ITCC and although the racing was good, the infighting and protests from the usual suspects are unlikely to attract new drivers to the class. They have a few more potential Uno competitors though so hopefully we will see the numbers grow. Ironically enough, despite the small numbers the racing was fantastic with Barry “Handsfree” Hallion and John McCormack battling ferociously with Gary Cunningham right there too and Coilin Clinton as the sole competitor, taking the Uno wins.
It seemed like we had waited forever to see Barry Rabbitt’s CRX go head to head with Martin Treacy’s RS500 so there was plenty of paddock chatter about that. Some thought there was no way the Sierra could match the times the CRX had been setting in mid week testing whilst others knowingly imparted that Martin had plenty in reserve last year and the CRX would not be a problem. When it came to it, there was actually very little between the pair. Rabbitt had the advantage in qualifying and took the all important pole
Martin Treacy's sinister black RS500 claimed an ITCC win at Mondello
position and when Treacy missed the lights, it was all but over. The black RS500 charged back up through the grid to second but by that stage Rabbitt was just a speck in the distance and although their times were similar, the gap was static. I was disappointed to see that the Touring and Super Touring classes were to run in separate classes as the beauty of the ITCC last season was the packed grids and huge variety of cars. Barry Rabbit explained to me, in his usual enthusiastic banter, that they had expected a small Super Touring grid for round one but this would increase as others broke the crucial time barrier and moved up to Super Touring as the season progressed. In fact Dave “Blocker” Clarke (whose newly supercharged Golf sounds amazing!) and Gareth Hayden found themselves bumped up before race two! The laptime barrier splitting the two classes had produced some hilarity during qualifying as more than one pit crew were furiously waving at their drivers to slow down as the passed the pitwall! In race two, with a reverse grid, Rabbitt’s racecraft despatched the rest in the early stages whilst the RS500 was a little more careful as he came through. Steven Maher’s M3 powered Compact has obviously been worked on over the winter by Gilmartin Motorsport and proved to be a challenge for Martin, the Sierra just edging by on the main straight. When Maher had a problem mid race, he pulled in at the back of the paddock, managed to get it sorted and rejoined as the pack came back from turn three, in the exact same position! Incredibly, his laptime and track position remained as normal and nothing was done! Behind all this, an incredible battle was raging as relative novices Ciaran Timmons and Phil Brennan went at it hammer and tongs. Timmons was in the ex Jonathan Brady/Tuning Factory Integra and was flinging it around as if he had been driving it for months. He had no choice though as he was under attack from Brennan’s newly built M3-powered 3 series for most of the race. It was an intriguing battle as Brennan tried to get the rwd machine alongside on the exit of every corner but struggled with traction. By the time he caught the sideways moment, especially out of Dunlop, Timmons was hugging the pitwall and the BMW could get alongside but not quite complete the manoevre before turn one. Eventually Brennan managed to pull off the move, getting up the inside on the exit of Dunlop and making it stick down into turn one. Both can be proud of a hard but fair battle though- more of the same next time please! Up front, Rabbitt’s CRX pitted with a driveshaft problem late on, leaving Treacy to take the flag and leave the score at 1-1 for the two championship frontrunners. In the touring car class, Gareth Hayden took a hard fought win from Dave Walsh in race one whilst newcomer Rob Savage drove well to take a strong win in race two with Hayden closing to within a second at the flag having hauled in the leader towards the end. Another impressive newcomer, Norman Fawcett, was third.
Damian Roddy drove well to snatch the lead from poleman Des Bruton in Stryker race one, although the aggressive move at turn two may not have ended so well had there not been such a gentleman alongside! In race two, Paul Yeomans took the win but when Joe Maher spun at the esses, Roddy has nowhere to go and was launched into a frightening series of rolls. Happily the car stood up well and Damien was out of the car and walking away seconds later. He even took the time to text us in the commentary box to let us know he was fine! The Strykers have done a fine job to actually increase numbers despite the current economic climate and it looks like we will enjoy some great racing this season as a result. Reigning champion Alan Watkins struggled for pace (in relative terms) but has just fully rebuilt the car and promises more pace next time out. Brian Kingston made the transition from Mondello Park’s Track Team to the seat of a Stryker at the weekend and can be proud of his performance, just missing out on a top ten finish in race one. Between the Track Team on the banks and the vocal Octane.ie members at Dunlop corner, he probably had more support than any other driver on race day! We’ll keep an eye on his performance as the season progresses.
Global GT Lights also produced some fantastic battles during their pair of races. As ever Max Drennan, Alan Byrne and Bernie Braden batled mightily at the front with a least one lead swap a lap but the big surprise was the pace of Mark “Boris” Twomey. The former Uno champion struggled to adapt to the ‘bike engined machines in his debut season in 2010 but having rebuilt the car over the winter, he shadowed the lead trio until just after half distance when his car went dead on the main straight. He first blamed me for jinxing him with “too much commentary coverage” but it subsequently transpired that he had simply got giddy and flicked off the fuel pump in all the excitment!! Watch out for that next time Boris!
Formula Libre Ireland also had a big grid for the first roundof their 2011 series, Dan Daly taking race one at a canter. Sylvie Mullins proved quicker in race two though and as ever, Dan was great to watch as he flung caution to
Nathan Daly shows his grandad Dan what he was doing wrong in race two.
the wind in his pursuit. Donal Griffin showed great pace too, shadowing Dan in the early stages of race one before a problem dropped him back, whilst Peter Dywer’s F3 Dallara battled with the Formula Renaults for the 2 litre class. Stephen Daly had suffered an engine blow in testing in Saturday, but in true daly fashion, he loaded up, went home, rebuilt the engine overnight and was on the grid the next day. Martin Daly also appeared in a Formula Renault and the ex karter displayed impressive car control as he got used to the car in race 2. Ex Vee champion Eugene Heary Senior debuted his ex John Downey AJR-engined Reynard F3000 and got quicker as the weekend went on so it bodes well for Libres this year at Mondello.
All pictures this time are from Marcin Lowandowski and you can see more on his website www.soundofphotography.com
That’s all this time round but we are back in Mondello in a little over the week so keep an eye on the blog! We also have a competition coming up courtesy of askracing.com with the winner getting an all expenses paid drive in a Porsche 924 in the HRCA race in Anglesey…..
More details soon,
Leo
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