Round 3 Report – 2010

SEXTON TAKES TOP STEP ON PODIUM.

Words: Paul Healy

Images: Anthony Levingston

After a brief sojourn to Kirkistown for the second round of the Irish Touring Car Championship the competitors returned to the series natural home for round three. And as anyone familiar with the micro climate that exists around Mondello Park would have predicted the weather played its part in proceedings.

For the morning qualifying session the sun was splitting the stones and all twenty five drivers were out to grab the best positions on the track. After the disappointment of Kirkistown Brian Sexton, in the new look JOMO Evo, was on a mission to make amends. Despite only being on track for a handful of laps he still grabbed pole with the only sub 60 lap of the session. Martin Treacy grabbed second place on the grid from Barry Rabbitt at the last second meaning Rabbitt, in the new Tuning Factory/Race DNA Integra, would line up alongside the TDP Evo of Robbie Thornton on the grid. The 1:01.930 of Thornton was even more impressive when he admitted that the turbo was only boosting at 0.6 Bar instead of its usual 2.0. With a fresh K20 under the bonnet Phil Burdock was looking forward to see how his little tested EK Civic would fair and was pleasantly surprised with fifth place.

Alongside Burdock on the third row of the grid was the impressive John Whelan in his Peugeot 306 while the ‘Hard Charger’ from round 1, Tomas O’Rourke finished over a second quicker than Jonathon Brady in the ‘old’ Tuning Factory Integra. Two drivers suffering problems were Keith Rabbitt in the BMW MINI and Anthony Murtagh in the JOMO Corrado. The youngest of the Rabbitt brothers snapped an engine mount during qualifying and while trying to rectify the problem broke a driveshaft that had only been installed the day before. While Keith managed to get the mount repaired a new shaft could no be sourced in time for the race and the MINI spent most of the day jacked up on stands. Anthony Murtagh looked to be having an equally bad day when despite qualifying his Corrado on the fourteenth slot on the grid his day looked to have come to an end when JOMO boss, John Staunton, unearthed a blown head gasket in the post qually checks.

With the race schedule running ahead of time it meant that the ITCC would be out second after lunch so everybody was running around making minor adjustments trying to get their cars set up perfectly. Then with the lunch break just around the corner the heavens opened. Torrential rain lashed down for the whole of the lunch hour and there was frenzied work in the paddock as settings were changed to wet weather settings and threaded tyres fitted to cars. The Race Controllers from MSI choose not to declare a ‘wet race’ as it would have forced everybody to start on wets – something that not all drivers have – one of whom was Phil Burdock whose only threaded tyres were a set of part worn road tyres.

The rain had eased off for the proceeding Stryker race and the single seater cars cleared something of a dry line around the track and their lap times were getting quicker as the session progressed so as the twenty five ITCC competitors made their way to the grid it looked like we might have a more predictable race. Dave Kenny, having qualified in his red Astra, elected to race in his wet weather Subaru on the understanding that he would start from the back of the grid. This left Anthony Murtagh free to take Kenny’s Astra and line up alongside him at the back of the grid. At the front of the grid all eyes were on the battle of the EVO’s and in particular the launch control equipped TDP car. When the lights went out the two wheel drive cars of Rabbitt and Treacy struggled for grip with the Westward Cosworth particularly having a problem, quickly falling down into the pack.. With no wet weather set up Rabbitt quickly had to come to terms with the car as he fended off the impressive John Whelan in the Yellow Peugeot 306. At times the 306 was pulling angles that any member of the Prodrift fraternity would be proud of.

Martin Treacy’s day went from bad to worse when Stephen Maher went off in front of him and in a bit of instinctive crash avoidance took to the grass. Of course 500bhp, rear wheel drive and wet grass don’t mix so by the time he rejoined the circuit most of the field had passed him and it was just a matter of damage limitation. At the front of the field Sexton was romping away with it after the turbo problems that had affected the TDP EVO during qualifying returned with a vengeance leading to the cars retirement. The experienced Tomas O’Rourke was up to second by the end of the first lap while Barry Rabbitt was dealing with the attentions of Piers MacFheorais in the silver Mazda MX6.

The main battle was in the midfield though where at one point Dave Clarke in his Mk2 Golf GTI led a pack of twelve cars up the start/finish straight. By the third lap the heavens had opened again and driver experience began to come to the fore. Ian Beatty in his ‘Ebay Special’ Opel Corsa took advantage of the road tyres on Phil Burdocks Civic by passing him down the inside of Honda quickly followed by John Whelan pulling a similar manoeuvre on Dave Clarke. Having passed Burdock, ‘Basher’ Beatty got involved in a monumental battle with Phil Brennan in the ex-Mondello Rover 25 GTI, a battle that was mirrored by that of Tom Fahy and Stephan Maher.

Whilst Brain Sexton was busy lapping the field in the dying stages and showboating a bit out of Dunlop for the final time other drivers were struggling to keep their cars on the track. Barry Rabbitt lost the TF Integra as he went through the Essess for the last time handing third place to John Whelan while a sticking caliper on his MX6 caused Piers MacFheorais to loose it coming out of Dunlop.

Due to Whelan not being registered for points, Barry Rabbitt actually took to the third step of the podium for the prize giving while the man who finished behind him on the track, Tom Fahy, walked away with both the 1^st place Rookie Cup Award but also the Stephan Maher Construction ‘Hard Charger’ award for his push from 13^th on the grid to 5^th overall. Happiest man of the day though had to be JOMO boss John Staunton, who after the disappointment of Kirkistown was delighted to see Brian Sexton on the top step of the podium to accept the first place trophy.

The ITCC returns to Mondello on Sunday July 18^th and with a double header on the day it promises to be an exciting days racing.

Pos / Driver / Car / Time

1 / Brian Sexton / JOMO Engineering Mitsubishi Lancer Evo / 59.856

2 / Martin Tracey / Westward Engineering Ford Sierra / 1:01.242

3 / Barry Rabbitt / Tuning Factory Honda CR-X / 1:01.714

4 / Robert Thornton / TDP.IE Mitsubishi Lancer Evo / 1:01.930

5 / Philip Burdock / Bracing Honda Civic / 1:02.162

6 / John Whelan / Peugeot 306 / 1:02.297

7 / Tomas O’Rourke / Opel Astra / 1:02.320

8 / Jonathan Brady [R] / Tuning Factory Honda Integra / 1:03.520

9 / Ciaran Timmons / Peugeot 205 / 1:04.057

10 / Piers MacFheorais / Mazda MX6  / 1:04.577

11 / Stephan Maher [R] / Honda Civic / 1:04.762

12 / Keith Campbell [R] / VW Corrado / 1:05.470

13 / Tom Fahy [R] / Honda Integra Type R  / 1:05.762

14 / Anthony Murtagh [R] / VW Corrado / 1:05.968

15 / David Clarke [R] / VW Golf GTI / 1:06.219

16/ Philip Brennan [R] / Rover 25 GTI / 1:06.449

17/ Keith Rabbitt [R] / BMW MINI / 1:06.570

18 / Chris O’Connor / Peugeot 106 / 1:06.678

19 / Paul Cinelli / Honda Civic EK9 / 1:06.726

20 / James Mannion [R] / Honda Integra / 1:06.899

21 / Garreth Hayden [R] / Honda Integra / 1:08.111

22 / Ian Beatty / Opel Corsa / 1:08.713

23 / Dave Kenny / Opel Astra / 1:08.833

24 / James Collen [R] / Peugeot 306 / 1:08.981

25 / David Walsh / Nissan Silvia / 1:09.283

RACE RESULT

Pos / Driver / Car

1 / Brian Sexton / JOMO Engineering Mitsubishi Lancer Evo

2 / Tomas O’Rourke / Opel Astra

3 / John Whelan / Peugeot 306

4 / Barry Rabbitt / Tuning Factory Honda CR-X

5 / Tom Fahy [R] / Honda Integra Type R

6 / Stephan Maher [R] / Honda Civic

7 / Ciaran Timmons / Peugeot 205

8 / Jonathan Brady [R] / Tuning Factory Honda Integra

9 / Ian Beatty / Opel Corsa

10 / James Collen / Peugeot 306

11/ Philip Brennan [R] / Rover 25 GTI

12 / Garreth Hayden [R]  / Honda Integra

13 / David Clarke [R]  / VW Golf GTI

14 / James Mannion [R] / Honda Integra

15 / Chris O’Connor / Peugeot 106

16 / Keith Campbell [R] / VW Corrado

17 / Anthony Murtagh [R] / Opel Astra

18 / David Walsh / Nissan Silvia

19 / Dave Kenny / Subaru Impreza

20 / Martin Tracey / Westward Engineering Ford Sierra

21 / Paul Cinelli / Honda Civic EK9

22 / Philip Burdock / Bracing Honda Civic

DNFs

Piers MacFheorais / Mazda MX6

Robert Thornton / TDP.IE Mitsubishi Lancer Evo

Keith Rabbitt [R]  / BMW MINI

[R] = Rookie Cup driver