Mondello Park Preview (Irish Champ)

[Cryos]

Motorsport Ireland, Irish Rallycross Championship
Round 6: Mondello Park

The Penultimate round of the irish championship takes place at Co. Kildares Motorsport Landmark Mondello Park. This the 6th Round of 7 will see the closest with championship Places and Class Wins at stake in nearly every class, it will make sure that this years Irish rallycross championship will be down to the Wire!

Co. Wicklow Man Christopher Evans is currently in the top spot for the reason being apart from Willie coyne none of the Main Class Contenders have managed to do well in all 5 previous Superfinals. Evans Also takes an Astonishing 5 out of 5 class wins this year in modified 1650cc+ Chris is this years Modified 3B Champion, we got a hold of chris and asked him "Will it be full speed ahead for mondello, or will you take it easy and settle for the modified 1650cc+ Class win?"

Evans:" I'll be even more determined to push hard and win as it would be nice to win the Irish and the British Championships in the one year! so its Full Speed ahead!"

With the prospect of an Supercar astra in the works we asked chris "what will you be doing with the micra, will you be defending your modified title or will you be jumping ship to supercar?"


Evans: "The Micra is been kept for the irish rounds and the rally sprints etc."

Also sneaking another question in we asked "The internations is just around the corner and your heading the team, last time out you gained alot of experience, whats the plan for this time out ?"

Evans: "Its going to be hard with these Europeons in their Volvos (Tanks) as there much stronger for pushing,but we must get the best starts and stay in front!!!!!"

And naturaly enough we asked chris a regular visitor to rallycrossireland.com what he thought of the site?

Evans: "Good site,Well done"

Moving Swiftly along, the supercar class sees Lawrance gibson holding the throne only 10 Points ahead of second place Mike Manning, and 13 points ahead of dermot carnegie. Carnegie is hot favorite to win the irish and now the british championships, if carnegie retires at the end of this year it would be great to clinch the British and the Supercar Class or even Irish championship wins!. Another man proving in form this year is mike manning, mike surprised everyone in Anglesay when he won one of the heats in his now Lightningly quick Ford Escort.

Another Quick Man in the supercar class is John Mc Cluskey Owner of the Very Sucsessfull JMC Van Trans, since the begining of the year the Ex-Gollop 306 Developed Electrical Problems which brought the 306 to the sideline in most events, however the Electrical Gremlins where solved just in time for Anglesay. Flying at Blyton john managed 3rd on the superfinal however it was to end in tears in the first corner as he cliped the back of dermot carnegie forcing the front of the car to aim towards the barrier and well the rest is history.

We caught up with john and pryed him away from his busy schedule to answer a few questions:

We asked "John With the 306 on the market dose this mean that the rest of the irish rounds will not see you out in the 306?"

John: "If the car is not sold by the next Irish outing we will be there, if it is sold I doubt we will have a new car in time for the rounds"

We also asked "This year has been a turbulent year for you, electrical problems and then the accident at blyton, will we see you at the start of the championship next year ?"

John: "All going well we intend to sell the 306 and purchase a new car in time to start both 2004 championships"

We asked john " Christopher Evans's Micra has caused quiet a stir in the Irish and British championships, a driver that has gone from zero to hero in the space of half a year, would you like to comment on this ?"

John: "I think Chris Evans is a great driver and deserves all his results, however it's hard to justify that kind of money spent in that class"

And Of Corse we asked what dose john think of rallycrossireland.com ?

John: " I think rallycrossireland.com is great and i regularly visit !!! "

Onto Modified, Willie coyne is proving that the younger drivers are Better Drivers! currently ahead of championship regular christy grimes. Coyne who is one of the linup of coyne bothers next year will take class honors in modified 1450cc+ from christy grimes the current modified 1450cc+ champ.

We got Willie on the case and asked "With the 1450cc+ Modified class in your grasp will it still be Full Speed ahead or will you take it easy at mondello this time around?:"

Willie:"I plan to race full speed ahead till the end of the championship"

We also asked him "This year you have been top man in the class Virtually form the start and with the modified title at your doorstep it begs the question, What are your plans for next year, will you be defending your title in the Modified Class or will you take a step upto 2.0Litre or even supercar ?"

Willie:"I havent decided if ill stay in the 1450cc+ class or move upto the 1650cc+ Yet."

All bets on in who will win the supercar class this year William Gave us his expert opinion:

Willie:"I think Dermot Carnegie is the hot tip for this years supercar class win"

We also asked william, who is also a regular visitor to rallycrossireland.com what he thought of the site?:

Willie:"Your Doing a Great job on rallycrossireland.com, the site is very detailed and is clearly laid out, its a credit to the rallycrossireland.com staff"

Modified Will see a new face to rallycross in the form of rallycrossireland.com owner Michael o'Brien who will be driving the teamrallycrossireland Nova GTE, with a 106 Maxi/GTi2000 Lined up for next year he will probably be the youngest rallycross compeditor in ireland at only 16.!

Down to Modified 1250cc+, Meath Man Joe Cahill is currently leading his class with only frank o'connel in the mini to contend with, however joe made history this year, the following Extract is taken from rallycross-puma.com

" rallycross-puma.com driver Joe Cahill made History in 2002 when he became the first Irish driver to win the 1400 class in the BRDA Rallycross Championship. Although he didn't contest the entire championship he done enough to clinch the class and was presented with his Trophy by the BRDA at the Mondello event in April. During the year he swapped from his trusty Mini to an ex-works composite bodied Metro but still using the Mini Engine and Box. The car is self prepared by Joe at home in Co Meath, including the preparation of his rapid 1400 Engine. Joe wrapped up a successful year by also winning his class in the Irish Championship and been chosen for the Irish Inter Nations Cup team that competed at the Rallycross Grand Prix in November"

Joe Cahill is now double irish Modified 1250cc+ Champion, hopefully he will clinch the 1400 class in the BRDA Series.


Finaly in stockhatch, Dublin man Derek Tohill and Sam Johnstone will battle it out in mondello for the stock hatch honors, derek proves that the 205 is not the best weapon in rallycross with his Citroen Saxo VTR. With an sister car to the saxo in the british championship breaking the ways in stockhatch at lydden hill it may spark a jump from 205's to 106's or citroen saxo's!


Irish Rallycross Preview By:

Michael o'Brien - Rallycrossireland.com

[EvilPumpkin]

This is the one on the 19th October yes?

[Cryos]

Hi Evil Pumpkin,

We only just got word that the event will be changed to the 26th of October for an undisclosed reason

[EvilPumpkin]

oh cool! I'm in Brands on the 19th so I thought I was going to miss it!

No doubt I'll see you all there (I'll be the one in orange..... )

[Cryos]

hmm, orange?..... Dont know any orange cars, want to drop me a number (car numbeR) or a name?...

[EvilPumpkin]

no dear I don't have a car. I have lots of BITS of cars from Rallycross though.......

This is me and the crew with our Rallycross wall of shame after the last BRDA round in Mondello (most of that debris belongs to Mr. Gibson...)

[Cryos]

Ah Very good, you might have my front bumper to add to your collection :P

[EvilPumpkin]

Ahhhhhhh a driver type! Right, make sure you let me know the car and the number then - we'll be sure to make sure you get all your bits back!

[Cryos]

blue & silver nova gte (no number yet)at the back of the modified class

[EvilPumpkin]

Nova? Is this the first year you've competed?

[275 GTB-4]

Céad Mille Fáilte
Never was good with furren languages!!

Rallycross was very popular in this country and I miss it. The WRC special stages close to large cities never seem to capture the frantic (manic?) action of Rallycross.

Enjoy it while you have it

[Cryos]

Yup,

This will be the first time ive competed, ive only turned 16 in may and i dident have a car ready for anglesay! so ill be taking the leap of faith in modified on the 26th of October

[EvilPumpkin]

Hmmmmm this is what happened to the LAST Nova we had.......

[Cryos]

heheh, that was a nice crash.
Ive never seen a driver so fast outof their car, hehe i wont be going fast enough to do that!

Ill run into the back of christy grimes or someone

[EvilPumpkin]

yeah - we thought he was going to make it to Naas! At least he was ok though - we were worried there for a little while.

I love this pic though - it looks like he's waving out the window!

[EvilPumpkin]

Sooooo what have you guys got in store for us this Sunday? Cmon give me a reason to get out of bed on a cold and rainy Sunday!

[Cryos]

,

Well i wont be out on sunday unfortuently! My car is not ready and a few technical difficulties have stoped us from going out on sunday. However, i dont think anything special is out on sunday (i could be mistaken, however i doubt it very much) the only thing that might apear out is Eugene Cahills Ford Puma Rallycross Car!, i doubt it tho as id say eugene is aiming for a rallysprint like most driver with their techincal or new car changes (i.e Michael & Brendan Coyne and Maybe Chris evans)

Well there should be loads or rallycross action as everyone knows the championship may go down to the wire this year so the penultimate round may see some heroics for championship positions....

[EvilPumpkin]

Well it was a good day, lots of action. Shame about them not being able to run the Supercar final but that's the joys of landing a date where the clocks go back the night before!

[Upside Down Bug]

Who did all the winning?

[EvilPumpkin]

Well the Supercar final results were a bit contentious as the race wasn't actually won - but Mr. Carnegie was awarded it.

I wasn't paying a lot of attention to the awards as there was beer to be drunk, but I know Christopher Evans picked up a couple of prizes as did Derek Tohill and George Tohill.

I will make notes for the next one!

[Cryos]

Pictures availbile on rallycrossireland.com

http://www.rallycrossireland.com/photoarchive.html

[Upside Down Bug]

Thanx guys,

EP drinking beer, now why am I surprised?

[EvilPumpkin]

Actually it was cider, but the concept is the same!

[Queen]

EP why am I not suprised that most of the bits came of Mr Gibson car? I get the feeling he doesn't his car or the colours as he always leaves bits of it about.

[EvilPumpkin]

Actually we didn't get much of him at the last one .... or indeed of any of the "supercars". We got lots of other stuff tho - including a full exhaust - although they made us give that back!