CAREY LIFTS THE BIG ONE AT KIRKISTOWN
BOSS Ireland provided the main feature race for the iconic Leinster Trophy at Kirkistown last weekend and Cian Carey was the form man in his Formula 3 Dallara F317.
He fended off some of the more powerful three-litre and Formula Renault 3.5 machines to claim a victory in the opening race of the weekend, but the second one was the one that counted for the famous silverware.
While Carey had a perfect day, others did not and notable among them was Jonathan Fildes who started his Renault-powered Lola T90 from the pitlane for the second year in a row. A clutch problem meant that he didn’t start the first race until it was three laps old and retired a couple of laps later.
Things were slightly better for him in the trophy itself. The clutch problems remained and he was again forced to start from the pits. Fildes burst from the pitlane and had passed six cars before Turn 1. He began picking his way through the field and eventually slipped past Noel Robinson’s second-placed World Series car and set off after leader Carey. Despite his urgency with the car, his dreams came to naught with a spin at the chicane.
Formula Ford 1600 delivered great action despite a startline incident which brought out the red flags in race one. At the restart, an intense battle between David McCullough and Dave Parks lasted until two laps from the end when McCullough was ousted from the lead at Fisherman’s. Parks took victory from Ivor McCullough, who had started from the back after missing practice. Pre-1990 winner Alan Davidson was third. In race two, the McCullough family took a 1-2 with David winning. That helped him to clinch yet another Northern Ireland title.
In the Formula Vee encounter, Anthony Cross won the ‘A’ race at a canter in his Sheane ahead of Jack Byrne’s similar car with Donal Downey – who had earlier won the Class B and C race for Leastone – in third place.
The Irish Legends made three appearances on the programme. The opener went to Geoff Richardson from Jamie
Moylan and Greg Richardson. Greg then went on to win race two ahead of Geoff, with David Yamamoto third. Greg was on the podium for three as well, but on the second step behind
Jamie Moylan.
Both saloon encounters were dominated by the visiting Seat Leon series. In the first race, Shane Murphy and Rod McGovern fought hard for the lead with the verdict going to Murphy. Donal O’Neill headed the NI Saloon ranks. In race two Brian Berry topped the Seats.
There were double wins in Roadsports and Global GTs. Steven Larkham (Radical) and Max Drennan (Global) scored back-to-back victories. It was a similar story in the NI Sevens where Graham Moore dominated. The concurrent races for Strykers featured wins for Jonathan Taylor and Kevin McGrath.
Another combined affair for the Mazda MX-5 and Fiesta classes gave Mazda victories to Gavin Kilkey and Francis Allen.
In the Fiestas, the usual battle between the Stewart and Graham clans ended with Mark Stewart ahead in race one from Derek Graham with
Michael Graham third ahead of Paul Stewart.
Derek Graham took race two honours from Mark Stewart with son Michael third.