Waterford Raceway Round 7

WATERFORD RACEWAY ROUND 6

The Pike Saturday 28 June 2025

After a six week gap, racing resumed at the Pike with the second of this year’s three planned double-header weekends. Ireland hadn’t been enjoying quite the same heatwave conditions that we’d seen in England over the last couple of weeks, but it stayed dry for the first day, despite the mist and rain gathering over the track’s backdrop of the Comeragh Mountains.

Although there were no directly clashing events for a change, the turnout was still disappointing, with just 26 cars arriving for the Saturday event, sponsored by Preferential Safety, who’d assisted in a marshalling/fire training course in the morning. With nobody quite sure if the weather would turn, the practice sessions and three rounds of racing were rushed through more or less non-stop.

The biggest grid was in CLASS 1, with seven cars. Adam Rooney, back after losing a few weeks with a broken ankle, led most of the first heat, but Killian Swayne got past Conor Hoey to lead the chasing pack, and Killian eventually came through to take the win, with Conor holding off Callum Swayne for second, and Jack Roche just stealing fourth from Adam Rooney on the line. Paddy Fitzgerald stopped to the back of the field, while Cillian Rooney pulled off after his engine went sick. Second time out Paddy Fitz was given a more generous handicap and led for a long time before Adam Rooney hit the front again. Adam, Conor Hoey and Killian Swayne entered the penultimate lap three abreast, but it was Killian, sandwiched in the middle, who drew ahead to take another win, with son Callum just pipping Conor, Adam and Jack Roche for second. Cillian Rooney’s car expired again in that race, and he was promoted to the front of the grid for the final, alongside Paddy Fitz. Cillian led away and held on in front for eight of the twelve laps, only for the car to lose power again just as he was caught by his brother, who was busy battling with Jack Roche. Jack, after some messing about with throttle bodies between races, was looking very strong and shot from third to first, taking the win, chased by Adam Rooney, while Killian Swayne, after following son Callum all race, grabbed third on the last lap from Callum and Conor Hoey, with Paddy Fitz completing the order. Killian Swayne was the overall winner, from Callum and Jack.

CLASS 2 was just represented by Conor Fitzgerald’s Micra and, although he was caught by the Class 3s in the first heat, Conor stayed ahead of the bigger cars in his next two races. The strong CLASS 3 field featured the first public outing for Jimmy Boland’s immaculate new Starlet, again going for the popular Fiat power. Jimmy started alongside the similar Starlet-Fiat of Darragh Healy, but quickly took the advantage and came home to a debut win ahead of fellow Wexford drivers Sean Foley’s Starlet-Honda and David Browne’s Micra. In the second race Jimmy launched himself on two wheels into the first corner; we missed it and he wasn’t sure how he did it, but it dropped him to the back of the field before battling through to a close second behind Sean Foley, with Darragh Healy just holding off David Browne on the line. The final saw Darragh head at the start. Jimmy soon came through to take the lead but Sean Foley stayed with him and, with two laps to go, Sean got past to take the win, with Jimmy second and Darragh holding off Mick Boland and David Browne for third – Mick’s Suzuki-powered Starlet having a strangely off form day with a very sick sounding engine in the first couple of heats. Sean Foley took the overall win, ahead of Jimmy and Darragh.

CLASS 4 raced with the LADIES, but that didn’t really matter as Katie Egan’s Starlet-Honda proved very evenly matched with the similar car of Kieran Cooney. The Wexford pair battled all day, with Katie taking the first race while Kieran took the other two. Mike Sigerson’s Starlet-Honda was runner-up in Class 4, despite relocating one of the tyre barriers in the first heat, and Aoife Healy took second in the Ladies, running in Darragh’s Starlet despite having her Rallycross Mini on hand.

The PRODUCTION JUNIORS are, for the moment, well down on their usual numbers, with just four cars taking the start, of which we lost Tommy Fong in the first race with a terminally rattling engine. Eoin Robinson won that race from Ben Fitzgerald and newcomer Danny Harney, getting nearer to the pace after car problems in his first couple of meetings. Eoin had just taken the lead from Danny in the second race when his engine cut out, leaving Ben to win from Danny. In the final it was Danny’s turn to have problems, while Ben won after a close battle with Eoin. Overall, Ben was the winner from Eoin and Danny.

There was a five car grid for the JUNIOR ROOKIES. Keelan Gleeson passed Ruby McCarthy for the lead in the first race, and then Keelan pulled away for a very convincing win as a four way scrap developed for second. Tom Robinson emerged in front of the battle on the last lap to take second from Anna Fitzgerald, Ruby and Dean D’Arcy. In the second race Keelan again took the lead early on and then built up a big lead before taking another impressive win. Again the other four had a close fight, with Anna this time taking second from Tom, Sean and Ruby. The final saw a scare for Ruby, when a tyre blew sending her into the armco, but the race continued with Sean and Anna racing side by side for the lead, and Keelan rapidly catching up after being promoted to the back of the grid. On the line Sean was just ahead of Anna, Keelan and Tom. Keelan took his first, and well deserved, overall winner’s trophy with Anna second and Tom third.

There’d been some excellent racing despite the small attendance, with it all to do again on Sunday.