Place Your Bets – Vees Race for the Famous Leinster Trophy this weekend!

It’s September and for motor racing fans in Ireland, that means one thing and one thing only, the Leinster Trophy meeting at Mondello Park. Historically, alongside the famous, but long gone, Phoenix Park Races, it was one of the highpoints of any club racer, or indeed fan, of the racing calendar.

Thanks largely to Michael O’Carroll, the Leinster Trophy weekend was for many years televised live by RTE. It was always so exciting to see the “outside broadcast units” rolling into the circuit during the week and scaffolding and cherry pickers being set up for the cameraman. Imagine how exciting it was for every clubman racer to be live on RTE in those very different pre internet and Instagram days! Thankfully in recent times, the ICCR, which just this week announced a title deal for 2025 and 2026 with TengTools UK and Ireland, have brought back the live broadcast concept. With the backing of the Beacon Hospital, the team from See It Live have recently added a state of the art drone to their already impressive armoury and this has added hugely to the coverage, which is now at least the equal of any similar broadcast in UK Motorsport.  This also means, happily, that the footage remains immortalised and can be watched again and again on YouTube in the days, weeks and month after the events!

The list of former winners, as we all know, is massively impressive, headed by Ayrton Senna, who, once he had disposed of an on-form Joey Greenan, marched away for a crushing victory in 1982. In recent times there have been no European or UK “career” classes visiting but, all credit to the Leinster Motor Club, instead of putting the famous trophy into storage, they decided to award it to the most deserving domestic class. The concept of a clubman getting his or her name on the same trophy as Senna, was not lost on the paddock and happily, the excitement around the event lives on as a result. Ireland’s top Motorsport Historian, Brian Manning, has devoted an incredible amount of time into researching the history of the trophy and has uncovered some incredible facts and corrected some historical inaccuracies in the process. (Who knew, for example, that the Mondello tower was struck by lightning during the 1992 LT race and the timing system got zapped? This means there is no official timing result for the race, no fastest lap recorded etc.) Brian should be applauded for his trojan efforts and I hope he will be officially recognised for this going forward.

Formula Ford 1600, Formula Sheane, BOSS Ireland and Formula Vee have all raced for the famous trophy and this weekend it is once again the air cooled 1600cc Formula Vees which have the honour of competing for the trophy. As ever, a few hotshoes have dusted off their machines in hope of glory, but the standard at the sharp end of the Selco.ie Vee Championship is extremely high. Anyone who wants their name on the trophy is going to have to bring their A Game, and then some.

Gavin Buckley is the reigning Vee Champion and like a fine wine, he seems to gets better with age. He always seems relaxed, cool and confident in the paddock and you almost get the impression that he, and his spannerman Adam Macaulay, almost expect to win. One thing is for sure, the immaculate yellow Sheane won’t be far from the front come Sunday afternoon.  Colm Blackburn is also on the entry list. Rumoured to be switching from his ex Ray Moore JH004 Leastone to his original and highly successful older JH002 chassis, he will definitely add spice to proceedings. His moves around the outside at the famous Turn Three, make it almost worth the walk down there on race day and he is definitely one of the best in battle.  Also on the entry list is a man who has already won the Leinster Trophy. Dan Polley (above) returns to the LOH Motorsport squad on occasion and, despite not racing regularly, is usually bang on the pace. A very fast man in the wet, he will definitely be worth a punt, looking at the Sunday forecast for Mondello Park.

A man very much on a mission is Ronan Doherty.  Twice he has had the famous trophy snatched from his grasp and, fresh from a few Kirkistown FF1600 wins, has wheeled out his Sheane to have one more go. His speed, as we know, is undoubted and if the planets align for the likeable young man, the trophy could very well be headed back to Ballymena-  after a few false starts! Joining him as a welcome NI visitor is fellow Sim Racing star Sean McClements. McClements shocked the paddock with front running A class pace when he made his Vee debut earlier in the year. When he was pitched into a roll at Southside Corner though, his meagre budget was shot and we haven’t seen him since. One assumes he won’t be at Mondello Park this weekend to make up numbers.

Another class returnee is Jordan Kelly. The quiet and unassuming second generation Vee racer has been missing from Vee grids in recent times. The reason? He casually went across the water and won the UK National FF1600 title. These days he is usually seen helping girlfriend Grace McCallion in her NI Fiesta Zetec endeavours. He returns to the Vee grids this weekend and it has to be fair to assume he won’t have lost any of his pace. Jack Byrne is also back on the grids and the Abbeylawn machine should be right in the thick of it. Jack didn’t race until June this year, when he took the win and he is another noted for his wet weather prowness…..

Another one worth watching is Conor Melia. another Sim racer, he and his SM Racing team have come on in leaps and bounds in 2025 and, although an outright win has thus far eluded both him and his impressive moustache! I expect him to be right there come Sunday afternoon.

Kieran Hannon is another worth watching. along with his team boss Tim Murray. Both drive beautifully prepared Leastones and neither run far from the front. You can get the gist here, there really are a myriad of potential winners this weekend and I. for one, wouldn’t want it any other way! A late entry this week could really upset the applecart as former multiple Vee Champion Anthony Cross dusts off his multiple championship winning Sheane to have a go at the big one! It’s hard to imagine him being anything but bang on the pace, so once again, this whole weekend is wide open. Pick a winner, because I certainly can’t!