MicksGarage.com Future Classics Race Report

So with round four now only a few weeks away, it’s time to reflect back on rounds two and three of last month.

With the full day of racing taking place on Sunday, 17th April, qualifying took place on the Saturday. With the onset of rain it looked like everyone would have only three or four laps to set some good times on a dampening track! The Civics of Martin Moore and Eoghan O Brien seemed to be setting the pace with consistent times, but the experience of Ken Byrne saw him taking pole for race one. Pole for race two went to Eoghan O’Brien. The race order for the top three spots on the grid Sunday were as follows;.

Race No.1
1st Ken Byrne
2nd Eoghan O Brien
3rd Martin Moore

Race No.2
1st Eoghan O Brien
2nd Adrian Dunne
3rd Martin Moore

Sunday morning- Race Day” and the sun was shining, BBQs were lit and the MicksGarage tent was was buzzing with action. There were some guys having car trouble from the Saturday, but as is the spirit of the Future Classics, there was plenty of help on hand in the paddock.

Race one commenced just before lunch and all cars got off to a great start, except for a rare mistake from David Hammond stalling on the line in his super quick little Uno. All cars got through turn one successfully, apart from Adrian Dunne, who ended up sideways and was lucky to hold the slide and not loose any places. O’Brien got to the lead early on lap one, but the man on the charge was Timothy Duggan in his Seat, coming from 8th to 3rd at the end of lap one. Near the end of lap three the leader Eoghan O’Brien suffered a slight mechanical failure and Ken Byrne got the lead back.

The lead swapped hands again momentarily as Adrian Dunne attacked the Celica of Ken Byrne down the main straight, but it got a bit tight at turn one resulting in the Saxo having a little visit to the sand.
Byrne continued to lead the race from Duggan and Moore, followed closely by Brendan Travers,Tommy Byrne and Willian Kellett who was making a very impressive debut in his Nissan Micra.
It wasn’t long until Duggan took the lead by out-breaking Ken Byrne’s Celica down the main straight and taking the inside line into turn one,and making it stick around the outside of turn two.

Byrne was now coming under attack by Martin Moore in his Honda Civic, who also made it past to get in behind Duggan in the Seat.
The lead pack started to spread out midway through the race, with Dunne in the Saxo playing catch up after the visit to the sand earlier. Brendan Travers showed great pace in his Punto and making life quite hard for some of the more powerful cars in the class.

As the race went on Duggan kept his composure to keep the lead with constant attacks from Moore.

There were great battles all through the field with close racing at every section of the track. Aidan Byrne was also showing a great turn of speed in his Chevette, picking off a few Puntos along the way, but his pace seen him pick up a ten second penalty for breaking the barrier time. Coming into the closing laps of the race Duggan continued to lead with Dunne eventually getting back to 2nd place. Unfortunately Dunne broke the barrier time (numerous times!) and therefore was out of contention for a podium place.

When all the cars past the chequered flag and all penalties for barrier time breaches were totted up, the top three were as follows; 1st place Timothy Duggan, 2nd place, with a great consistent drive, Martin Moore, and 3rd place Brendan Travers,which was an amazing drive from 13th on the grid.

championship.

This was the last race of the day for Mondello and due to time restrictions, this race was three minutes shorter, a twelve minute race instead of the usual fifteen minutes.

The grid was formed with Eoghan O Brien in pole, Adrian Dunne on the second spot and Martin Moore in 3rd of a 23 car grid. Again all cars made a great start with the exception of William Kellet, who unfortunately stalled on the grid. He was very lucky to escape as cars dived past on both sides to miss him. Out ahead, Dunne was in the lead and tried to break away on the first lap,as you can’t break the barrier time from the standing start. The Saxo was followed closely after lap one by O’Brien and Moore in the Honda Civic tag team 🙂
Making great progress also was the Uno of David Hammond, who didn’t make any mistakes off the line this time!

Timothy Duggan was also busy fighting through the pack as he started well back on the grid, but with the straight line speed of the Seat and Timothy’s experience it wasn’t long before he was in 2nd place and pushing hard for the lead.

As the race went on the battles behind the lead were intense with the two Civics fighting hard with the Uno of Hammond and the big Celica of Ken Byrne. Up front Dunne and Duggan were caught up in a tactical battle for the lead.

After a few laps Duggan made his move going up the inside of Dunne on turn two to take the lead of the race.
By this stage Hammond in the Uno had slotted into 3rd place after putting away the two Civics and was now pushing Dunne hard for 2nd place. To evade the attack from the Uno of David Hammond, Dunne made a move for the lead again, playing Duggan at his own game by showing great straight line pace and getting past him on the straight to take the lead back. But the battling continued, as William Kellet, after stalling on the grid, made a surge back up through the pack, picking off more powerful cars and lapping faster than any other car, at that stage.
He would eventually make his way back to 9th from last, after his stall, which was incredibly impressive to see.

The lead had changed hands again, with only a few laps to go in the race Duggan took the inside line into turn two again to make the pass.
But there was another man that wasn’t finished. After Martin Moore suffered the loss of his rear bumper and the boot popping up to give much unwanted down force, this made him easy pickings for Aidan Byrne. Eoghan O Brien suffered more technical problems and this also took him out of the equation. Byrne was then licking his chops at the rear of Hammonds Uno and on the very last corner he made his move down the main straight to take the 3rd spot.

The finish was so close it came down to where the transponders were located on the cars.

The race finished with Timothy Duggan taking 1st followed closely by Adrian Dunne in 2nd and just by about one-tenth of a second Aidan Byrne came in 3rd place

Looking back on this race, the stand out driver had to be sixteen year old William Kellet.
His drive from last, after stalling on the grid and fighting back up to a 9th place was a great achievement.
Credit must be given here as he just put his head down and never gave up. It’s clear this young “future classic” has a very bright future in motorsport.

That’s pretty much a wrap from us for now until our review of round four,which is coming up on the 12/06/16 on Mondello Park’s International Circuit.
Sorry for the delay on our review of rounds 2&3 we have been quite busy behind the scenes, and we soon will have an exciting announcement to make regarding the future of Future Classics Racing,so watch this space!