Race No.1
1st Ken Byrne
2nd Eoghan O Brien
3rd Martin Moore
Race No.2
1st Eoghan O Brien
2nd Adrian Dunne
3rd Martin Moore
Sunday morning "race day" and the sun was shining, BBQ's were lit and the MicksGarage tent was was buzzing with action. There were some guys having car trouble from the day before, but as is the spirit of the Future Classics there was plenty of help on hand in the paddock.
Race one commenced just before lunch and all cars got off to a great start, except for a rare mistake from David Hammond stalling on the line in his super quick little Uno. All cars got through turn one successfully, apart from Adrian Dunne, who ended up sideways and was lucky to hold the slide and not loose his place on track. O'Brien in the Civic got to the lead early on lap one, but the man on the charge was Timothy Duggan in his Seat, coming from 8th to 3rd by the end of lap one. Near the end of lap three the leader, Eoghan O'Brien started suffering with mechanical issues and Ken Byrne got the lead back in his Celica.
The lead swapped hands again momentarily as Adrian Dunne and the rapid Saxo attacked the Celica of Ken Byrne down the main straight, but it got a bit tight at turn one resulting in the Saxo having a little visit to the sand. Byrne continued to lead the race from Duggan and Moore in the Civic, followed closely by Brendan Travers, Tommy Byrne and William Kellet who was making a very impressive debut in his Nissan Micra.
It wasn't long until Duggan took the lead by out-breaking Ken Byrne's Celica down the main straight and taking the inside line into turn one, and making it stick around the outside of turn two.
Byrne was now coming under attack by Martin Moore in his Honda Civic, who also made it past to get in behind Duggan in the Seat. The lead pack started to spread out midway through the race, with Dunne in the Saxo playing catch up after the visit to the sand earlier. Brendan Travers showed great pace in his Punto, making life quite hard for some of the more powerful cars in the class.
As the race went on Duggan kept his composure to keep the lead with constant attacks from Moore. There were great battles all through the field with close racing at every section of the track. Aidan Byrne was also showing a great turn of speed in his Chevette, picking off a few Puntos along the way, but his pace saw him pick up a ten second penalty for breaking the barrier time. Coming into the closing laps of the race Duggan continued to lead with Dunne eventually getting back to 2nd place. Unfortunately Dunne broke the barrier time (numerous times!) and therefore was out of contention for a podium place.
When all the cars passed the chequered flag and all the penalties for barrier time breaches were totted up, the top three were as follows; 1st place Timothy Duggan, 2nd place, with a great consistent drive, Martin Moore, and 3rd place Brendan Travers,which was an amazing drive from 13th on the grid!
So moving on to the second Future Classics race of the day, which would be round three of the championship. This was the last race of the day at Mondello and due to time restrictions, the race was three minutes shorter, a twelve minute race instead of the usual fifteen.
The grid was formed with Eoghan O Brien in pole, Adrian Dunne on the second spot and Martin Moore in 3rd of a 23 car grid. Again all cars made a great start with the exception of William Kellet, who unfortunately stalled on the grid. He was very lucky to escape as cars dived past on both sides to miss him. Out ahead Dunne was in the lead and tried to break away on the first lap, as you can't break the barrier time from the standing start. The Saxo was followed closely after lap one by O'Brien and Moore in the Honda Civic tag team :)
Making great progress also was the Uno of David Hammond, who didn't make any mistakes off the line this time! Timothy Duggan was also busy fighting through the pack as he started well back on the grid, but with the straight line speed of the Seat and Timothy's experience it wasn't long before he was in 2nd place and pushing hard for the lead. As the race went on the battles behind the lead were intense with the two Civics fighting hard with the Uno of Hammond and the big Celica of Ken Byrne. Up front Dunne and Duggan were caught up in a tactical battle for the lead.
After a few laps Duggan made his move going up the inside of Dunne on turn two to take the lead of the race.
By this stage Hammond in the Uno had slotted into 3rd place after putting away the two Civics and was now pushing Dunne hard for 2nd place.
To evade the attack from the Uno of David Hammond, Dunne made a move for the lead again, playing Duggan at his own game by showing great straight line pace and getting past him on the straight to take the lead back. But the battling continued, as William Kellet, after stalling on the grid, made a surge back up through the pack, picking off more powerful cars and lapping faster than any other car, at that stage. He would eventually make his way back to 9th from last, after his stall, which was incredibly impressive to see.
The lead had changed hands again, with only a few laps to go in the race Duggan took the inside line into turn two again to make the pass. But there was another man that wasn't finished. After Martin Moore suffered the loss of his rear bumper and the boot popping up to give much unwanted down force, this made him easy pickings for Aidan Byrne. Eoghan O Brien suffered more technical problems and this also took him out of the equation. Byrne was then licking his chops at the rear of Hammonds Uno and on the very last corner he made his move down the main straight to take the 3rd spot.
The finish was so close it came down to where the transponders were located on the cars. The race finished with Timothy Duggan taking 1st followed closely by Adrian Dunne in 2nd and just by about one-tenth of a second Aidan Byrne came in 3rd place
