ICCR SEASON CLOSES OUT AT MONDELLO
MONDELLO Park will stage the final round of the Irish Car Championship Racing (ICCR) series, with a one-day meeting on Sunday.
Mondello took over the running of the ICCR at the behest of Motorsport Ireland and have condensed all the Irish car racing series into a series of two-day meetings across the season.
The final rounds, however, will all take place on Sunday, with the concluding races on that day.
The classes racing in the ICCR range from the imposing BOSS series for big openwheeled cars to the likes of the Siltex
Safety Zetec Championship.
Grids have held steady and, in some cases, grown under Mondello’s management though there is still no premier racing class in Ireland and the Formula Ford series lies dormant.
It’s the decider for the Siltex Safety Zetec Championship, the Coffee 2 Go Fiesta ST Championship and the Patch Tyre Equipment Junior MINI Challenge.
Dublin garage owner Michael Barrable, a former National rally champion, looks set to retain the Zetec title but nephew-and-uncle pairing of Keith and Alan Dawson have a chance of the title.
Penalty
Eddie Peterson has dominated the ST Championship but a late-season charge from Michael Cullen sees him within striking distance — but he would need to win both races with Peterson not scoring and/or receiving a penalty to take another salon car series win.
David Travers leads the Junior MINI Challenge but has been pushed hard by Karter Codey Keogh, who took two wins last time.
Rising stars aged 14-17 will also complete in two championshipcounting sim races in the Digital Motorsports Virtual Race Academy over the weekend, the first time an Irish series has included eSports as a counting round.
The other classes involved are the (leading) and Keogh
Legends, the Seat Supercup, BOSS, Formula Vee and Strykers.
Meanwhile, having won the Avon Tyres BRSCC British Formula Ford 1600cc championship last weekend, Mullingar’s Jordan Dempsey has his eyes set on winning the Formula Ford festival at Brands Hatch next month and the Walter Hayes trophy at Silverstone in November.
Eventful
Dempsey, a former Motorsport Ireland Young Racing driver of the year recipient, got a budget together to race in the UK this year and an eventful weekend in the final three races at Donington Park ended with him collecting enough points to take the title.
The Mullingar man has been more used to winning this season, so finishing in the bottom half of the top 10 showed the level of competition.
Dempsey went off on lap one of race one before a collision severely damaged his car. He managed to get the Kevin Mills Racing car back to the pits, where the team repaired it enough to get him to the finish in the points.
“In race two, I started 19th and had to finish eighth to wrap up the championship and I finished eighth,” said Dempsey.
“The top six cars were reversed for race three, so I started eighth. It was ok for the first few laps, and I made up a few places, but then the brake fluid started boiling and I was losing brakes, so I calmed down and just brought the car home.
“It wasn’t a good weekend but it’s great to win the championship.”
Dempsey has raced at the prestigious Festival at Brands Hatch for several years and finished second in the 2020 event there.
The 22-year-old added his name to a list of Irish winners when he won the
Walter Hayes Trophy also for Formula Ford drivers in 2019.