Welsh Championship Round 12 - Mondello Park 9/10 August

by our reporter Seamus Pit Stop

Slightly later in the year than usual, our annual Mondello trip took place
on weekend of 9th and 10th August, with the Championship round on the
Saturday. It was dificult to get accomodation anywhere as Robbie Williams
was performing to 125,000 people on Saturday night in Dublin! Still, the
weather was scorching, and the Guinness was cold!

Practice

14 cars were out in practice. Fuel starvation problems forced Terry Brown to
park near the Hewlett Packard hairpin after only 4 laps, by which time he
had posted a time of 59.74 to claim 4th place on the grid, just 2
thousandths of a second ahead of Peter Williams in 4th spot. PJ Fallon took
pole in what looked suspiciously like a McLaren replica! Jeff Davies put in
a strong performance of 57.23 in his Radical Prosport to take second
position. The Global Lights of Ivor Williams and Alan Byrne were next up.
Then there was a truly wild looking Renault Clio (well it was a Clio
bodyshell!), about 1 inch off the floor, powered by 2 Honda Blackbird
engines, driven by Eamon Matheson. This was followed by Huw Williams in his
Prosport. Rhodri Jenkins's Civic was first of the "true" saloons, lapping in
1m 5.2s. Just behind was Ed McInerney in his amazing looking car, which
looks like a hybrid of a Darrian, a Formula Ford and a Formula 2 car! Paul
Trowbridge was also going well in his Ginetta, posting a 1m 6.42.

The Race

Terry had his car back on song by the time the race started mid-afternoon,
and got ahead of the pack in the first few laps. From there he never looked
in danger, and took the chequered flag ahead of PJ Fallon. Peter Williams
was third in a time of 11m 42s, which would have been sufficient to win by 7
seconds last year! Jeff Davies beat off the Global Lights to finish 4th,
with Rhodri finishing in 8th place after a race long attempt to catch the
Porsche 911 of Jim O'Reilly, which had just won the Historics race. Rhodri
was ahead for the first few laps, and posted a 1m 5.17s, but could not keep
Jim behind. Paul Trowbridge pushed Rhodri and Jim really hard for the first
few laps, but had a half spin which cost him time, and he finished in 9th
place, followed by some Strykers. And what about that mad, bad Clio!? Well,
it was as mad on the circuit as it was in the paddock, and it was a shame
that after just 3 lairy laps a tyre seemed to go and force Eamon out. Ed
McInerney was also unlucky to have problems and had to retire after 4 laps,
but he has hinted that he'd like to come over and race with us in Wales. We
all told Ed that when he comes we'll extend a similar fantastic reception to
him as we always get from our Irish friends! Thanks to you all!

And what of the Championship? Well, with 2 double-headers to go Rhodri is still 2 points
ahead of Terry.

All to play for at Lydden Hill on September 20th and 21st,and Pembrey in October.