ITCC Round 3 & 4

Rounds three and four of the TECH-IT Irish Touring Car Championship brought the drivers to beautiful Bishopscourt race circuit in county Down.

The series still missed some front runners as both Barry Travers and Shane Rabbitt still failed to get their cars ready for the weekend. While Shane didn’t make it out, his brother Keith amazingly managed to build his car in three weeks to make sure one of the Rabbitt family got out on track for the weekend.


Round one winner and local man Ciaran Denvir was out to pick up where he left off, but faced stiff opposition from Andrew Armstrong who took pole for race one in his BMW M3.

For the first race it was Ulick Burke in his Honda Integra, who made the best start and lead the field into turn one. A collision between Jay O’Reilly and Donal O’Neill brought out the red flags. This was a bonus for Denvir who had spun and dropped back considerably down the field. Once the grid was reformed the action got underway again it was Burke who got the better start and lead the field into turn one.

Burke made a break on the opening laps but Armstrong soon reeled him in and got by on lap three and began to open a gap of 15.420 seconds. Behind the front two Ciaran Denvir, Keith Campbell, Stephen Potter and Robert Savage battled it out for the final podium spot. Then halfway through the race Ulick Burke’s Honda Integra developed mechanical problems and began to drop back to the third placed battle. Three laps from home Denvir, Potter, Campbell and Savage had got by. An unfortunate end for Burke who had shown great pace early on and also for Savage and Capbell who both got penalties for exceeding track limits which promoted Ulick Burke back up to fourth. So at least some points were saved for the Westmeath mans championship.

Andrew Armstrong comfortably took the win by 15 seconds ahead of Ciaran Denvir with Stephen Potter in third.

Speaking to Andrew after the race he explained the bad start he had. “We have an ECU fault which won’t let me rev it out when on the line, which means i cant get off the line and it drops me back down the field. It’s fine when it gets going just at the start its a problem.”

For the second race it was again Armstrong on pole but sadly for Ulick Burke his mechanical problems from race one continued and he had to pull in on the outlap. Ciaran Denvir made the start this time and lead the field into turn one. Denvir quickly opened up a healthy lead as Armstrong again had to fight his way up through the field after another poor start. Gareth Hayden and Robert Savage both received jump start penalties. Armstrong took the lead on lap five but Denvir wasn’t giving up and retook the lead on lap seven. Then on lap eight Armstrong began to slow with mechanical problems and dropped behind Keith Campbell.

Denvir commanded his lead to take the his first home win at Bishopscourt from Keith Campbell and Andrew Armstrong. Two races over the weekend kept the series supporters entertained, and as the series heads back to Kirkistown next month it is still Ciaran Denvir who is the man to beat. Can he repeat of the first round and make it another double ??

Results by class:
Class A Race 1
1st Andrew Armstrong
2nd Ciaran Denvir
3rd Stephen Potter

Class B Race 1
1st Keith Campbell
2nd Robert Savage
3rd Gareth Hayden

Class C Race 1
1st Daniel Faherty
2nd Tony Gallagher
3rd Alan Donnelly

Class A Race 2
1st Ciaran Denvir
2nd Andrew Armstrong

Class B Race 2
1st Keith Campbell
2nd Robert Savage
3rd Gareth Hayden

Class C Race 2
1st Daniel Faherty
2nd Tony Gallagher
3rd Alan Donnelly