 |
| Jack Byrne, Sheane, leads Dan Polley, Sheane, and Gavin Buckley, Sheane, on his way to winning round six of the Selco.ie Formula Vee Championship at Mondello Park. Photo: Barry Cregg. |
For round six of the Selco.ie Formula Vee championship Dan Polley again lined up on pole position. Jack Byrne joined him on the front row with Gavin Buckley and Anthony Cross behind. Polley was determined to convert his pole to a win this time out and made the best start by leading the field into turn one. There was no chance of him letting anyone around the outside like the previous round, he didn't have to worry about it anyway as Byrne got too much wheelspin off the line which let Buckley through into second. Championship leader Cross also had a bad start and dropped to fifth on lap one.
 |
| Dan Polley, Sheane, leads Gavin Buckley, Sheane, Jack Byrne, Sheane, and Trevor Delaney, Sheane, on the opening lap of round six of the Selco.ie Formula Vee Championship at Mondello Park. Photo: Barry Cregg. |
Both Trevor Delaney and Gavin Buckley spun in the early part of the previous race and didn't want a repeat in this race. Polley started to open a gap and was clearly much more comfortable with the conditions than in the first race. Behind Byrne steadily grew into the race and maintained the gap to Polley as best he could. Unfortunately Delaney lost the back of the car in the Esses and dropped down the field once again. Cross was closing in on him and was lucky not to have hit the stricken car of Delaney. With no wind or heat the track was not going to dry any quicker so those who wanted to move up were going to have to go on the wet areas which were unpredictable to say the least for grip when you add in the oil laid down earlier in the day.
 |
| Gavin Buckley, Sheane, leads Jack Byrne, Sheane, during round six of the Selco.ie Formula Vee Championship at Mondello Park. Photo: Barry Cregg. |
Another driver who impressed this time out was Donal Downey who made his way up to fifth at one stage until dropping back to seventh by the flag but to be fair to the young Naas driver, it was his first trouble free run in the car this year and it looks promising for the rest of the season if he can keep the same pace up. Up front Buckley mad his move on Byrne to take second on lap seven and then began to bring the two of them towards the leader. Round five winner Tim Murray didn't have the same pace as he had earlier even though he did get up to fourth at one stage. Surprisingly Cross had no answer to those ahead of him. Before the season started he did want to have more setup time in the wet as he felt he needed it and the proof was shown again in this round. These two had a ding dong battle for the majority of the race with Murray making another one of his outside line overtakes to get by Cross.
 |
| Dan Polley, Sheane, leads Jack Byrne, Sheane, on his way to winning round six of the Selco.ie Formula Vee Championship at Mondello Park. Photo: Barry Cregg. |
By now Byrne was back on the gearbox of Buckley and after exiting the final corner he got alongside and retook his second place back. In doing so Buckley outbraked himself going into turn one and slid but managed to hold it from turing into a full spin but he lost time to Byrne. Backmarkers were also coming into play and around Mondello it can be hard to get by them easily everytime. Murray was slowed by one and it gave Cross the chance to get beside on the exit of the final turn. In his haste to keep Cross at bay Murray got on the power to early and spun, undoing all his hard work.
 |
| Dan Polley, Sheane, right, leads Jack Byrne, Sheane, during round six of the Selco.ie Formula Vee Championship at Mondello Park. Photo: Barry Cregg. |
Polley now had the green car of Byrne filling his mirrors as the gap he had was now gone with nothing between the two. Byrne tried the outside line in turn one and it looked to have worked but Polley squeezed him out and held his line. Byrne had two wheels on the grass by now but managed to fit in behind on the run out to the 'country' as they say in Mondello. A lap later he was past on the exit of turn three, and in split second went from attack mode to defence as he held off the immediate attack at the next corner from Polley. All this gave the spectators something to shout about.
 |
| Jack Byrne, Sheane, leads Dan Polley, Sheane, and Gavin Buckley, Sheane, on his way to winning round six of the Selco.ie Formula Vee Championship at Mondello Park. Photo: Barry Cregg. |
All this let Buckley right back into it and going on to the last lap it was anyone's to win. Byrne held firm though and held him at bay with corners running out it was going down to the final corner. As they exited the Esses, Byrne slowed to take the dryer line but in doing so Polley ran into the back of him and spun. dropping down to fourth. Tim Murray again got maximum points in the Vw Spares championship and fastest lap of the race. A good weekend for the county meath driver who seems to go well in the wet. Even though he dropped to seventh by the end of the race Downey took maximum points in the Motorsport.ie championship, a great showing and hopefully he can carry this form on for the rest of the season.
 |
| Jack Byrne, Sheane, celebrates after winning round six of the Selco.ie Formula Vee Championship at Mondello Park. Photo: Barry Cregg. |
Another win for Byrne at Mondello and in time also in terms of his championship challenge. However 'Mr. Consistency' Anthony Cross again took another podium to top up his points tally for the weekend and limit the damage by other taking wins.
 |
| Donal Downey, Leastone, on his way to finishing first in the Motorsport.ie 'Star of Tomorrow' championship at round six of the Selco.ie Formula Vee Championship at Mondello Park. Photo: Barry Cregg. |
Next up is Kirkistown for the Leinster Trophy meeting on the 28th of August, so not much time for drivers to fettle the cars but the chance to win the prestigious Holmpatrick trophy will be an incentive for all to make the journey north of the border.
Results:
Selco.ie Formula Vee National Championship.
1st Jack Byrne
2nd Gavin Buckley
3rd Anthony Cross
VW Spares 'B' Championship
1st Jordan Kelly
2nd Tim Murray
3rd Jonathan Hollywood
Motorsport.ie 'Star of Tomorrow' Championship
No comments:
Post a Comment