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WATERFORD RACEWAY ROUND 9

The Pike Saturday 12 October 2024

Making up for the abandoned foggy August meeting, Waterford Raceway’s October event was turned into a double-header, featuring rounds 9 and 10 of the 11-round 2024 championship.

With racing not due to start until 3 pm on Saturday, the pits were fairly quiet in the early afternoon, before filling up with a rush just before the start time, ending up with the biggest turnout of the year so far, 55 cars and 57 total entries. It was always going to be a challenge to fit in the planned three rounds of racing, plus the annual Tony Dunphy Cup race, before dark. Although bright sunshine for most of the afternoon/evening helped, a succession of red flags didn’t and eventually just the Juniors and Class 1B got a third round, with everyone else going straight to the cup race. There was also the factor that, the way the class racing was going, there might not have been any cars left for the cup race after three rounds!

The JUNIOR PRODUCTIONS started the action, with a 13-car grid. The first race went smoothly with Jamie Eager leading most of the way until Cole McGann, having carved through the traffic in his normal style from the back of the grid, took over to win ahead of Sean Ryan. Jamie held on to third from Ben Fitzgerald, Conor Hoey, Jack Roche, Sherise O’Shea, Tommy Fong, Aoibhe Fitzgerald, Eoin Robinson, Paddy Fitzgerald, Cillian Rooney and Jack Nolan, the Wexford driver making his Pike debut.

Tommy Fong had made good progress in that race after taking a rolling start from the back, with no clutch, and was doing even better in race two when he found himself in the wrong place as the big pack of cars got too close, leaving Aoibhe Fitzgerald facing the wrong way, while Tommy’s day ended with a hard smack of the wall, unfortunately resulting in some broken bones, so we wish him a speedy recovery and return to racing. Everyone but Tommy made the restart, with a quick switch of car for Jamie Eager. Cillian Rooney this time red from the front, until Cole McGann came through for another win, with Jack Roche also pulling clear of the pack in second, while Sherise O’Shea and Sean Ryan emerged at the front of the seven cars fighting over third.

The third round proved equally hectic, with Sherise O’Shea coming off worst as she collected a spinning Cillian Rooney. Father Stephen’s 1B car was then commandeered for Sherise to take the restart, in which Eoin Robinson was leading from Paddy Fitz, until the reds came out again, just as Cole McGann had snatched third from Jamie Eager, with everyone else tightly packed behind.

The ROOKIE JUNIORS had 11 cars on the grid, with no split groups this time. Keelan Gleason had made a promising debut at the last meeting, and this time lived up to that promise by leading the first race from flag to flag, just holding off Cayden Leahy at the end. Points leader Anna Fitzgerald had to come from the back and took third from Luke O’Connell, with another relative newcomer Sean D’Arcy taking a good fifth ahead of Ronan Sisk, Ruby McCarthy, Emily Sisk, James Leahy, Tom Robinson and Molly Walsh.

The finishing order was reversed for the second heat grid, which emphasised just how evenly matched the current Rookie field are, with winners able to come from anywhere in the pack. This time Tom Robinson led all the way to win, with James Leahy second from Emily Sisk and Luke O’Connell. The third round saw the day’s third winner; Molly Walsh and Tom Robinson took turns at leading but on the last lap Luke O’Connell came through to take the chequers from Anna Fitzgerald, Tom Robinson, Molly Walsh, Ronan and Emily Sisk, Sean D’Arcy, Cayden and James Leahy, Keelan Gleason and Ruby McCarthy, with not much daylight between first and last. Overall, Luke was the winner from Anna and Tom.

With this weekend seeing the final two rounds of the Deasy Coaches sponsored Micra Challenge, points were at stake for any of the CLASS 1B drivers who’d teamed up with a Junior. Stephen O’Shea, with his smartly refreshed car, spent virtually the whole race running side by side for the lead, firstly with Dylan Eager and then with Darragh Healy, again borrowing Jack Roche’s car. This battle let Callum Swayne sneak up on them and his last corner move forced the lap scorers, for the second meeting running, do declare a dead heat as Stephen and Callum crossed the line together, with Darragh, Killiam Swayne and Jamie right behind. The next race was led away by Nicky O’Leary in the K10 Micra, and he held off Killian Swayne’s challenge until Killian finally got clear with three laps to go, only to have to contend with Callum moving up to second. Killian just held off Callum this time, with Nicky holding third from Stephen O’Shea, Adam Rooney, Darragh Healy and Jamie Eager. Reversing the points put Adam and Jamie on the front row for the final and Jamie led this one all the way, with Killian, Derragh and Callum climbing all over him by the end. Stephen, Adam and Nicky had their own battle a short distance behind. Callum took the overall win from Killian and Stephen.

The modified classes all had respectable entries and were initially split up with Class 1 and 5 together, 2 and 3 together and Class 4 having the welcome couple of Class 6 entries for company. The lineup evolved a bit with the two Class 5 cars deciding they were probably really Class 4s!

CLASS 1 provided some fraught action. Shane Hickey took a clear win in the first race after Conor Fitzgerald had a quick pit stop to fasten his door. Ex-Autograss racer Sean Berresford made his debut in an ex-Sean Maher Rosegreen Production Micra and was running well in second until the engine cut. Second time out Sean led half the race but ran wide lapping the troubled Liam Kirsey, and ended up heading for the left hand kink three abreast, with Shane Hickley on his left and Michael Kiersey coming up quickly on the right. That part of the track isn’t quite three Micras wide; Sean got sandwiched in the middle and Michael ended up bouncing off the infield wall. The race was stopped to sweep up the remains of Michael’s car and rerun half an hour later, by which time Michael was back on the grid. This time Sean Berrisford locked-up into the pit gate bend and ploughed into the tyre wall, while Liam Kirsey and Shane Hickey spun, Shane heading backwards into the side of Sean’s car. As the red flags flew a loud bank from the back straight indicated that the Kiersey brothers had got in trouble, Michael hitting the wall and wiping out the opposite front corner from the one he broke earlier! After some unsubtle repairs removed his back bumper, Shane rejoined the rerun and won from Conor and Liam.

CLASSES 2 and 3 proved evenly matched, with Class 3 starting ahead. Jason Murphy took the first race in Class 2, chased by Tommy Daly and Sean Foley, who were split at the end by the quickest Class 2s, with Wayne O’Shea’s Micra holding off Jimmy Boland’s Fiat-powered Startelet. The other Starlet-Fiats of Pat Nolan and Darragh Healy battled for third in Class 2, followed by PJ Nolan’s Starlet. Making his Pike debut in Class 3, with Jason Murphy’s older orange Starlet, was Coolronan based Sean Cuss, who was quickly getting on the pace of the regulars.

In the second race Tommy Daly was being chased by Jason Murphy when the reds came out a lap early due to Pat Nolan’s Class 2 spluttering to a halt; Sean Coss picked up third in class after a spin for Sean Foley. Wayne O’Shea was again closely followed by Jimmy Boland in Class 2, with Darragh Healy and PJ Nolan next up.

Mike Sigerson, racing the ex-Luke O’Donovan Starlet again, was the only Class 5 runner to race with Class 1 in the first round, but then joined in with CLASS 4. We unfortunately lost the Honda Civic of newcomer Fionn Cronin before the start, with a very sick engine. Kieran Cooney passed Kieron Murphy for the first heat win, chased by Killian Swayne, whose very quick 1300 Micra was at last back on track after a series of engine disasters. Craig Kinsella more or less kept his Starlet on track after finding out the hard way that it had no brakes! Second time out Kieran Cooney again won from Kieron Murphy with Mike Sigerson third after Killian Swayne’s dreadful luck returned with a blown piston, and Craig Kinsella headed for the pits, narrowly avoiding taking the two CLASS 6 runners with him!

Tom Hill’s Nissan Turbo-powered 205 had some class opposition with Martin Fitzgerald reappearing in his ex-Jason Kew National Hot Rod Tigra, out for the first time since 2019. Fitz quickly got the bug again as he passed Tom in the closing stages to win heat one, but a broken hub on the Tigra in heat two ended that battle.

The Class 1 trophies went to Shane Hickey, Conor Fitz and Michael Kiersey. Class 2 was won by Wayne O’Shea from Jimmy Boland and Darragh Healy. In Class 3 Tommy Daly came out ahead of Jason Murphy and Sean Foley. Class 4 winner was Kieran Cooney ahead of Kieron Murphy, with Killiam Swayne and Mike Sigerson tried for third. Tom Hill took Class 6 from Martin Fitz.

The LADIES ran with the JUNIOR MINI, the latter class just comprising Dean Dasy although on track he had the similar car of Aoife Healy to race, Aoife now running in the Ladies. The first race saw Katie Egan spin out, rejoining a lap behind Chelsea Eager, but Chelsey later spun and also lost a lap, leaving Aoife in front until she was just passed on the line by Katie. The second race was red flagged after Katie spun, and on the restart she made no mistake, holding off Chelsea with the two of them catching the two battling Minis at the finish. Katie won overall, with Aoife and Chelsea tied for second.

This just left the TONY DUNPHY CUP race, with just enough daylight left after sunset, and a bright moon overlooking the Pike. Nine of the potential 23 starters came out for the 20 lap race, with Jimmy Boland leading the way and Tom Hill at the back, with a lap and three quarters to make up. Jimmy held the lead until halfway, with Wayne O’Shea challenging him until Kieron Murphy and Kieran Cooney joined in – meanwhile it had taken Tom Hill just seven laps to get himself onto the lead lap. Kieran Cooney established himself in front, with Tom charging through the field until he reached second place with three laps to go. By the last lap he was in striking distance, but his last corner challenge came up just a couple of feet short, so Kieran Cooney took another well deserved cup win, while Kieron Murphy and Wayne O’Shea were still close in third and fourth. Then came Jimmy Boland, Chelsea Eager, Sean Foley and Tommy Daly, with Jason Coss having pulled off.

Trophies sponsored by the O’Connell family were presented in the gathering dusk, and then it was time to brave the rather chilly night before doing it all again on Sunday.