Irish championship at Mondello

The first round of the 2011-12 Motorsport Ireland Rallycross Championship was run at Mondello Park on Sunday where George Tracey took the event win with his Citroën Xsara Supercar. With only a handful of starters ion the Supercar class, Tracey’s win was never in much doubt, although he was given a run in the Superfinal where Supernational winner Ian O’Connell delivered a great drive in his Lotus Exige.

O’Connell passed Ian Byrne’s turbocharged Toyota MR2 to win the Supernational A final, B final winner Willie Coyne climbing to   third place ahead of Dessie Tierney and young Mark Francis who shone on his graduation from the Junior category and, sharing his father Davy’s turbocharged, rear-drive Escort, made his way to an impressive fifth place.

The Stock Hatch classes provide the bulk of the entries some great racing, the 16v A final particularly close fought and eventually won by Shane Colfer while Noel O’Brien took a clear win the 8v class. James Fleming won the Junior category and the Rally Car class victory was collected by Noel Greene.

During a test day on Saturday the proposed Joker Lap section of the track was trialled. “Getting the re-entry to the standard lap right was the difficult part, but they worked that out by moving the barriers at the entry to Rallycross Three (the third gravel section). It made the Joker Lap and the standard lap work really well,’ said Derek Tohill who drove his ERC TouringCar class Fiesta in the test. The Joker Lap now needs to receive approval and safety clearance before it can be used in an event, this hopefully on course to be granted before round two of the championship at the end of the month.

Tohill had planned to race his Fiesta in the event on Sunday but an engine problem late in the test on Saturday afternoon forced him to withdraw the car. Instead he took his 16v Stock Hatch Peugeot 106 to Mondello on Sunday, qualifying it on pole for the A final which he led before slipping down the order after losing third gear.

• Motorsport Ireland Rallycross Championship, Mondello Park 16.10.11
• Superfinal
• 1 George Tracey (Citroen Xsara) 3m 45.76s,
• 2 Ian O’Connell (Lotus Exige) 3m 47.29s,
• 3 Andrew Morris (Subaru Impreza) 4m 04.61s,
• 4 Paul Pascoe (Subaru Impreza) 4m 05.73s,
• 5 Willie Coyne (Opel Corsa) 4m 06.67s,
• 6 Dessie Tierney (Opel Tigra) 4m 06.83s.
• Supercar
• George Tracey (Citroen Xsara) 3m 09.46s,
• 2 Andrew Morris (Subaru Impreza) 3m 21.32s,
• 3 Paul Pascoe (Subaru Impreza) 3m 21.66s.
• Supernational
• 1 Ian O’Connell (Lotus Exige) 3m 17.03s,
• 2 Ian Byrne (Toyota MR2) 3m 25.26s,
• 3 Willie Coyne (Opel Corsa) 3m 25.68s,
• 4 Dessie Tierney (Opel Tigra) 3m 26.16s,
• 5 Mark Francis (Ford Escort) 3m 26.94s.
• Stock Hatch 16v
• 1 Shane Colfer (Peugeot 106) 3m 36.67s,
• 2 Eddie Peterson (Peugeot 106) 3m 37.29s,
• 3 Michael Duke (Peugeot 106) 3m 37.72s,
• 4 Aaron Dalton (Peugeot 106) 3m 38.73s,
• 5 Andrew Twomey (Citroen Saxo) 3m 42.23s,
• 6 Philip Lawless (Peugeot 206) 3m 43.12s.
• Stock Hatch
• 1 Noel O’Brien (Peugeot 205) 3m 34.93s,
• 2 Fergal Bowes (Peugeot 205) 3m 38.99s,
• 3 Ciaran Murphy (Peugeot 205) 3m 44.47s,
• 4 Keith Kerrshaawe (Peugeot 205) 3m 45.55s,
• 5 Mark Halligan (Peugeot 205) 3m 46.36s,
• 6 Colin Dowling (Peugeot 205) 3m 46.71s.
• Junior
• 1 James Fleming (Nissan Micra) 4m 01.78s,
• 2 Eamon Horan (Nissan Micra) 4m 03.35s,
• 3 Sophie Byrne (Nissan Micra) 4m 07.53s,
• 4 Andrew Clarke (Nissan Micra) 4m 08.10s,
• 5 Darryl Smyth (Nissan Micra) 4m 20.97s,
• 6 James Huddleston (Nissan Micra) 4m 21.31s.
• Rally Car
• 1 Noel Greene (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9) 3m 22.75s,
• 2 Lloyd Hutchinson (Mini Cooper S) 3m 24.17s,
• 3 Declan McKeown (BMW M3) 3m 26.45s,
• 4 Thomas O’Rafferty (Opel Corsa) 3m 34.04s,
• 5 Anthony Masterson (Honda Civic) 3m 39.00s.

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