Results and stories of the sprint weekend.

Kiltorcan Raceway

John Dier & Karen O'Dowd

Saturday 12th July

Mike Clyne has had fastest times on all three timed runs in his Van Diemen which gives him over 2 seconds of the lead from Simon McKinley in a Leastone who has a further 2 and a half seconds over Eamon Murphy in his Escort Cosworth which is also the fastest saloon car of the day so far.
Brendan Harpur in 4th place is the quickest Wexford member so far in his Delta, only half a second behind Murphy. Mark Dempsey and Seamus Hobbs are 5th and 6th with Wexford driver Peter Bogan in 7th despite having put his Escort on its side this morning. Alan Boggan and Graham Scallan keep up the Wexford representation in 8th and 9th place with Siobhan McCann being the leading lady in 10th place.

On the fourth and fifth run, the only thing that changed the running order was Brendan Harpur breaking his front left wishbone on the fouth run and Seamus Hobbs having a very good last run that brought him up two places to fourth by the time the day's proceedings came to a close. A lot of the drivers realised that they could not better the times they had set in the middle of the day and held their powder dry until the Start of Sunday's separate competition.

Sunday saw the appearance of a few more entrants who decided to just take part in one day's competition. While Mike Klyne decided to take up where he left off by taking the fastest time of the day again, the dice behind was where the excitement really took off. David James in the Focus must have thought that he had taken second place until, the broken wishbone man, Brendan Harpur, decided to squeeze the last pout of the Delta on the last run, and put himself breathing down Klyne's neck for second. How sweet that must have felt after the malady of the day before cost him a likely podium finish, the work on Saturday night to rebuild the wishbone paying off. James Fogarty in the Jedi just missed out on a podium with Simon McKinley only able to finish fifth on day 2, despite his best time being almost identical to the run he did in the opposite direction on Saturday. Seamus Hobbs must be happy in the Mini, finishing 6th ahead of mark Dempsey in the Sparton in 7th. Alan Boggan and Siobhan McCann were the model of consistancy, finishing day 2 in the same spot as the Saturday run, with Colin Dunphy's Laser displacing Graham Scallan in 9th.

All in all, clerk of the course for the weekend, Sean Martin, must feel very pleased with the club's first use of Kiltorcan for the event and I think any one who made the trip either day will hope that the event is brought back for another run, watch this space to see if it is!!

Latest times for the top of the field

Top 10 times after the completion of Saturday's five runs.


1st  Mick Clyne, Van Diemen     92.20"
2nd  Simon McKinley, Leastone   93.51"
3rd  Eamonn Murphy, Cosworth    96.88"
4th  Seamus Hobbs, Mini         97.16"
5th  Bredan Harpur, Delta       97.32"
6th  Mark Dempsey, Sparton      97.46"
7th  Peter Bogan, Escort        98.42"
8th  Alan Boggan, Nova          99.01"
9th  Graham Scallan, Escort Mk2 99.47"
10th Siobhan McCann, Leastone   99.68"

Top 10 times after the four timed runs on Sunday

1st  Mike Clyne, Van Diemen     91.85" 
2nd  Brendan Harpur, Delta      92.91"
3rd  David James, Focus         93.00" 
4th  James Fogarty, Jedi        93.60" 
5th  Simon McKinley, Leastone   93.77" 
6th  Seamus Hobbs, Mini         95.63" 
7th  Mark Dempsey, Sparton      96.25" 
8th  Alan Boggan, Nova          97.60" 
9th  Colm Dunphy, Laser         98.01" 
10th Siobhan McCann, Leastone   98.11"

Thirty one pictures of the weekend by Patrick Doyle can be seen here.
Saturday's results in pdf.
Sunday's results in pdf.

JD