The 2005 V-MAC Silo’s Autocross Champion Joseph Smith is well on the way to becoming the inaugural Wedlock Plant Hire Autocross Champion after winning both opening rounds of this years series. The Castletara driver had a 2.5 second winning margin on round 1 and finished 1.5 seconds clear of the field on Sunday last. While his Class 4 Mk2 Escort may not be the most powerful in the entry list Joseph seems to find the grip and driving lines through the slippy conditions that have been the hallmark of the first two rounds of this years championship.
Posted: February 13, 2006 8:04 AM
Sunday’s event was the first wet event in some time, while most have been slippy and greasy few had any standing water and rainfall. The early pace on Sunday was set by the smaller front wheel drive cars, the pacesetter was in fact a newcomer to the track, Stephen Lipsett in a Peugeot 106 Gti. The young Fintona driver’s time stood until Joe Smith recorded the fastest time on the first run a full 2.6 seconds faster than Ronnie Coulter in second.
On the second timed run Ronnie Coulter just edged ahead of Joe recording a time 0.18seconds better, exploiting the combination of power and front wheel drive. Once again Stephen Lipsett featured among the podium places with the third fastest time just under a second behind. With most drivers settling on repeats of their run 1 times it was thought that the track had yielded its fastest time with Ollie O Reilly making the most gain to set third fastest time. Ronnie Coulter tried in vain to better his fastest time on the second run but was fractionally slower. There was no touching Joseph Smith however as he was 1.5 seconds faster to record the fastest time of the third run and indeed the event.
Among the classes Tommy Donlon debuted his newly built Peugeot 106 1.4 and took command of the class 1 fight, while Gerard Greene and Michael Conlon took up the final two class positions. The line up remained just so for the remainder of the event. In class 2 Danny McCormick shook of an early challenge from Shane McGirr to take the category win with fastest times on the second and third runs. The Nova of John Unkles was third in class 2. Stephen Lipsett’s dominance of class 3 ensured he was far in front at the finish while the Honda Civic’s of Willie Woods and Jack Newman took up the remaining podium positions.
With Joseph Smith taking the overall event win John Watters ascended to the class 4 win with a good aggregate total, Peter Deery had a fastest time on the second run but had to settle for second while Gerry Smyth made good his return to Hut Cross to take third in class 4. Although his pace wasn’t enough to win the event it did ensure Ronnie Coulter the class 5 win while Ollie O’Rielly’s late turn of speed lifted him ahead of Mervyn Wedlock into second in class.
The Wedlock Plant Hire Autocross Championship returns for round 3 on March 26th.
Results
1 Joseph Smith (Escort) 4m 17.73s,
2 Ronnie Coulter (Astra) 4m 18.99s,
3 Ollie O’Reilly (Escort) 4m 21.49s,
4 Stephen Lipsett (Peugeot 106) 4m 22.07s,
5 Mervyn Wedlock (Escort) 4m 22.37s,
6 Robert Moffett (Yamaha Buggy) 4m 22.72s.
Class winners:
Tommy Donlon (Peugeot 106) 4m 24.89s,
Danny McCormack (Nova) 4m 24.09s,
Stephen Lipsett,
John Watters (Escort) 4m 28.71s,
Ronnie Coulter.
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