Posted June 4, 2025 by leonulty Motorsport

Fast Newbies boost Siltex Safety Zetec Grids

For the last number of years, the Siltex Safety Fiesta Zetec class has produced the biggest grids of the ICCR weekends at Mondello Park. Even though there have been a few successful graduates moving up, Dave Maguire to STs this season for example, a constant influx of newcomers has kept grid numbers up. 2025 has been no exception, with a number of ladies included in the Rookie ranks this season.

Top sim racer Even Walsh, above, won the Mondello Park Scholarship shootout before the start of the season. He was fastest around the International Loop in one of the Mondello Mazda saloons and so won himself a free season of motor racing at the wheel of the Mondello Park branded Fiesta Zetec. He promptly won the Rookie class in his first race and came second in race two. You’d expect him to be leading the standings then, except Mikey Moynihan did the exact same, finishing runner up in race one and taking the win in Race Two, leaving the pair exactly equal on 37 points. Alex McCann sits in third place and then the ladies start to feature.

Mikey Moynihan was fast on his Zetec debut and will be aiming to visit the top step of the Rookie podium this time round once again!

Liv Corcoran, above, showed massively improved form at the season opener in April and scored a popular debut podium. She sits in fourth place, just ahead of Nadine Kavanagh, the karter having also visited the podium on her first ever car race weekend.

Elizabeth Downey is next up in her lurid pink machine, from Freya Burns in her equally eye catching green machine. LolaRose Turley, below, lies eighth but a little birdie that flew over the LOH workshops in Donadea recently told me that her engine was way down on power at the opening round. This has now been rectified and the team are confident she will make good progress. (The clue there is probably in the surname!)

It doesn’t end there however, as there are three fast additions to the ranks this weekend, and all three work at the track. Marc Mulhern is a former bike racer and showed great speed last year in the Mondello Park Team Building car. He returns to the car this time round, but having scored a Rookie win last season, below, is not eligible this year to do so again, so will be competing against the main field.

Sean Purcell also works in the busy Mondello workshop and he has had a few good runs in Rallycross in the Team Building Car. The third one is Finn Gillespie. Having had a tough season in the Star Of Tomorrow Vee series in 2024, with a series of mechanical mishaps, he was one of the Mondello team for the Zetec six hour and showed really strong pace, so if the Motorsport.ie ex Lorcan McGivney car is running well, he could upset the form book. Just to add a bit of spice to this one, Motorsport.ie will put up a “Canteen Bragging Rights” trophy for the first (fulltime!) Mondello employee across the line in Race Two!

Former Rally driver Tonya Fortune also joins the Rookie grid this weekend but has not yet had a chance to test her car. she went well on the stages in a Civic though so it shouldn’t take her long to get the hang of circuit racing! Also Garett Phayres, father of Junior MINI driver Harry, makes his motor racing debut this weekend in the ex Toby Maguire car.