Events Archive

Mondello Park's third car race of event of the season will be staged this weekend by the Irish Motor Racing Club.

 

The two day event is unique among this seasons race meetings as it takes place on two different circuit layouts and features the longest race of the season.

Saturday's race programme takes place over the full International circuit while Sunday's portion of the event reverts to the more commonly used National Track. The programme on day one features just two races, with the local Fiat Punto and Uno drivers being the only support class for the visiting Fun-Cup endurance racers.

On its second visit to Ireland the Fun-Cup moves from the National track used last year to the international circuit, and changes from a pair of three hour races to a single six hour event. The series for identical VW beetle look-alike race cars has attracted an increased entry with thirty one cars set to take up the challenge of the only endurance event on the Mondello Park calendar.

All of the cars in the race use identical purpose built racing chassis with a beetle style body placed on top, and the tightly controlled regulations make for close and exciting racing. The Fun Cup cars will practice on Friday and Saturday after which a lottery will be held to decide the grid positions for the six hour race. The only other race on the programme will be a 20min affair for Fiats which gives their drivers a rare opportunity to race on the full International layout. The Fiat race is scheduled for 11:00 with the build up to the 12:00 Fun Cup race beginning around 11:45.

Sunday will see a further eight races run on the National Track with Formula Vee, Formula Sheane, Saloon Car Challenge, Historic's and Fiat's making up the programme. Following a couple of years of declining entries Formula Vee numbers are on the up and have grown large enough to necessitate the re-introduction of a qualifying race. The qualifier will be the first race on the programme and with over forty entries the battle to make it through to the final twenty eight will be extremely tight.

The only other class to race twice will be the Mondello Park supported Saloon Car Challenge which is already attracting significant entries in only its first season. The class has added some much needed variety to the Irish saloon racing scene, which has become dominated by on-make racing in recent years, and entries are already approaching the twenty mark. The variety of cars accommodated by the regulations has produced some interesting results with the first two wins being taken by such diverse vehicles as a Mini and a Lotus Exige.

The remainder of the programme see the Fiats split into Punto And Uno classes for separate races while the Formula Sheane and Historic will cars race just once. Sunday's programme gets underway at 11:45 and the last race is scheduled for an earlier than usual 16:30 start.

TIMETABLE

Saturday
 
09:00
 Fiat Punto & Uno
 Qual
 15 mins
 
09:30
 Fun-Cup
 Qual
 60 mins
 
11:00
 Fiat Punto & Uno
 Race 1
 20 mins
 
Lunch Break
 
12:00
 Fun-Cup
 Race 1
 6 hours

Sunday
 
09:30
 Formula Vee Group 1
 Qual
 15 mins
 
09:52
 Formula Vee Group 2
 Qual
 15 mins
 
10:14
 Saloon Car Challenge
 Qual
 15 mins
 
10:38
 Fiat Punto & Uno
 Qual
 15 mins
 
11:00
 Formula Sheane
 Qual
 15 mins
 
11:22
 Historics
 Qual
 15 mins
 
11:45
 Formula Vee Qualifier
 Race 1
 15 mins
 
12:10
 Saloon Car Challenge
 Race 1
 15 mins
 
Lunch Break
 
14:00
 Fiat Uno
 Race 1
 15 mins
 
14:30
 Formula Vee
 Final
 18 mins
 
15:00
 Historics
 Race 1
 18 mins
 
15:30
 Fiat Punto
 Race 1
 18 mins
 
16:00
 Formula Sheane
 Race 1
 18 mins
 
16:30
 Saloon Car Challenge
 Race 2
 18 mins
 

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