Round 9 of the 2014 MicksGarage.com Formula Sheane Championship traveled back across the border to the ultra-fast Kirkistown Race Circuit for the final time this year. Going into this weekend the series was locked into a 5-way battle for the lead of the championship with the leader, Brian Hearty, missing this one and counting it as a dropped score. This was the perfect opportunity for Sheane, Hogg, Allen and Parks to close the gap down to the Master and make the final weekends racing of the year in September, one to remember. The drivers arrived to testing on Friday morning to a very windy track. A strong head wind down the back straight slowed them down but then again pushed them through the 140MPH Debtors corner at the end of the start finish straight. Suffice to say it made for very changeable times and very exciting to watch. Sheane, Allen and Hogg led the way in the tricky conditions by all setting 1.01.2’second laps. Enda O’Conner’s woes continued with engine trouble early on in testing resulting in him missing out on the rest of the day. Robbie Allen’s machine succumbed to clutch issue’s also later on in the day. With testing over, the teams all set about preparing their cars for the next day followed by a few swift ones in the bar afterwards for a de-brief,
Qualifying.
Saturday morning started off dry with a few sporadic showers here and there. It managed to dry up and stay dry for qualifying and straight from the off the battle between the top four (less Hearty of course) in the championship commenced. Robbie Allen set the pace very early on followed by Parks the very next lap to take the pole with Sheane in 3rd and O’Connor, after getting his troubles sorted, in 4th and Hogg rounding out the top five. Multi Motorbike Champion Paul McLoughlin and Sean Hynes battled it out for 6th and 7th respectively with Richard Kearney in the Ex-Sean Doyle race winning Sheane taking 8th. Brendan Carr snipped 9thfrom Shane Mcloughlin to lock out the top 10. Sheane, true to form, snatched the pole away from Parks in the very last lap of the session as he had done at the last round in Modello Park from Brian Hearty. Robbie Allen’s clutch gremlins sneaked back towards to the end of the battle for pole but would prove terminal this time and would mean he would not make the grid for the race, robbing us of a tremendous battle and ending any championship hopes he had for the year.
Round 9
To quote David Parks, “There’s rain in the air”, and boy was he right. All the cars and crews were waiting patiently in the assembly area with no less than a minute to go before the cars took their grid positions and the heavens opened. A few crews scrambled to change as much as they could to a wet Set-up on the cars before they left assembly with others taking the chance on the dry set up. Out they went for a very wet and slippery green flag lap to try get a feel of where the grip was before the next lap when they would hitting those corners with serious speed and aggression. The rooster tails coming off the back of the cars would put an F1 car to shame in the wet; this meant visibility was going to be a concern to those in the middle of the pack. The revs grew (albeit not as high as normal to reduce as much wheel spin as possible) and lights went out. Off the line David Parks got it all hooked up and got the jump on Sheane but held the lead for only a few hundred metre’s before his clutch let go and put him out robbing him also of a championship chance. Hogg made a blistering start to form up behind Sheane as they avoided Parks coming into the braking area of turn 1, but snatched all four wheels into a very slow spin in the wet conditions, arriving at the first corner backwards.
Paul McLoughlin was the big winner in all the mayhem managing to put his car in all the right places to take second place and try hunt down Sheane who by now had pulled an impressive gap even by turn 3. Sean Hynes had avoided all the mayhem to slot into 3rd from the back of the grid by the end of the first lap. A charging Enda O’Connor was starting to get the head down and reel the 2ndand 3rd place men in. Hynes took 2nd away from Paul McLoughlin only briefly before O’Connor dispatched McLoughlin and ultimately Hynes too for the 2nd position. With his head down and the sniff of a podium in his nostrils O’Connor set off up the road in pursuit of Sheane. Paul McLoughlin snatched 3rd away from Hynes to show his excellent form in the wet. A recovering Hogg had settled into 5th position but just couldn’t seem to make any ground on the men in front. The “Become a Racing Driver” winner Shane McLoughlin revelled in the conditions and brought his car into 6th position, not bad for his first time driving at this track and in the horrendous conditions. O’Connor’s hunt of Sheane was to be in vain as the Championship holder was way out in front to take the much needed win for his title defence. And that’s how it all ended up, Sheane in 1st, O’Connor visited the Podium for the first time this year and the newbie Paul McLoughlin took his very first podium in the class in his first year; a very impressive drive I might add.
The 5-way battle at the top of Championship table has now been reduced to a 3-way one between the Formula Sheane Ace’s Brian Hearty, Kevin Sheane and Keith Hogg. Hogg has the outside chance, the wildcard of the trio. Sheane is just 6 points behind Hearty and will need to win the final two races of the season at Mondello Park if he is to retain his title. That’s not going to be an easy feat considering there are still another 6 or 7 drivers that have all shown race winning pace over the season and will be gunning to take a win before the year is out. Onwards to the final race of the year at the Leinster Trophy Weekend, where, for the last two years running the Formula Sheane race has been the star of the show and there is no doubt that it will be again for the 3rd consecutive year. This is a battle you are not going to want to miss….Roll on Rounds 10 & 11 of Irelands Premier Racing Series the Micksgarage.com Formula Sheane Championship on the 20th and 21stof September in Mondello Park.
Image credits: http://roydempster.com/
