+44 (0)8452 10 50 50
Round 1 at a very wet Mondello Park provided some challengingconditions for our new Ginetta Junior Drivers. Along with the verywet conditions, oil on the main straight from earlier classes madethe conditions even more difficult and provided them with a realtest of their racing talents
Niall Murray took pole for Race 1 with Portadown man JoelRichardson placing himself in second just .3 of a second off the Poleman. Former Junior Rallycross driver Jake Byrne was 3rd with motorracing novice Andy O'Brien putting in some brilliant laps to round offthe front two rows of the grid in fourth place.
A bad start off the line for Murray saw Joel Richardson going straightinto the lead going at the first corner. With the entire pack gettingaround the first couple of corners cleanly, it was a two horse raceout at the front between Richardson and Murray. Novice driverAndy O'Brien was third coming out of turn 1 with the former NitroCars racer Sean Doyle close behind to round off the top 4. Howeveran incident between Jake Byrne and James Fleming at turn 1 sawthe safety car come out on track. Mondello Park's Track Team staffmanaged to get the stricken car of Fleming back on track quicklyand racing could commence once more. With the pack bunchedup going for the line, Murray was right under the back bumper ofJoel Richardson as they headed into turn 1. O'Brien was calmly incontrol in third with Doyle fourth and former Junior Rallycross driver Andrew Patterson rounding of the top five.
Out in front of the pack, a spin at turn 3 handed the lead over to avery hard charging Niall Murray. Coming up out of Turn 3, Murraywas leading with O'Brien second, Doyle third and Richardson getting back on track in fourth position. From this point onwards avery cool and collected Murray consolidated his lead while Richardson made a very impressive move around Mondello's notorious turn 4 almost passing both Sean Doyle and Andy O'Brien to take second. A very sharp O'Brien managed to close the door just in time to hold second over Richardson but on the run up to thefinal corner Richardson managed to slip down the inside to slip back into second place. Fourth place man Sean Doyle was driving really well in the Orange S.Marah Garage & Tyres car but a spin coming out of turn 2 would demote the Wicklow man back to seventh.
Meanwhile there was a great dice for fourth and fifth between theformer Junior Rallycross Drivers Jake Byrne and Andrew Patterson. Unfortunately for Patterson, his lack of pre-season testing wouldcatch him out as he spun coming out of turn 4 to hand fourth placeto Byrne in his red TheGrid.ie car. Byrne had a podium in his sights though and managed to catch and pass Andy O'Brien going into the final lap of the race. However a last lap slip from Byrne allowed O'Brien back into third as they crossed the finish line.
The final result was a very impressive win for Niall Murray who alsotook the fastest lap of the race in his Murray Motorsport car forRound 1 of the Ginetta Junior Ireland series supported by Michelin Tyres and sponsored by TheGrid.ie. Joel Richardson came home insecond with Andy O'Brien just taking third.
Final Results:
1. Niall Murray - 15.10.047
2. Joel Richardson - 15.26.680
3. Andy O'Brien - 15.37.496
4. Jake Byrne - 15.44.159
5. Andrew Clarke - 15.45.638
6. Sean Doyle - 15.54.119
7. Andrew Patterson - 16.00.747
8. James Fleming - 16.21.767
