Kildare Rallycross @ Mondello - 22 Nov 15

Tohill achieves surprise second place at Euro RX season warm up

Posted: January 18, 2016 9:54 AM

Former double FIA European Rallycross Champion Derek Tohill won the Supercar category and finished second in the Superfinal at the final round of the 2015 Irish Rallycross Championship, held at Mondello Park (November 22).

The PFCRX driver raced the team?s recently acquired Olsbergs MSE built Ford Fiesta Supercar for the second time, having claimed victory on the freshly rebuilt cars maiden run with team at the penultimate round of the series.

During the day, Tohill won all three of the Supercar heats to qualify on pole position for the Supercar final, which he led from lights to flag. Some issues on the start line of the Superfinal resulted in the Fiesta stalling, which allowed the other cars to get away, but Tohill fired the engine back up and delivered the drive of the day. During the six lap final, Tohill had to hunt down the entire field and much to the delight of the large crowd, there was a grandstand finish. In a dash to the line, Tohill just missed out on victory to Noel Greene (Mitsubishi Evo) by less than a second.

The last two rounds of the Irish Rallycross Championship have provided a valuable learning ground ahead of next season in the FIA European Rallycross Championship for the PFCRX team. Tohill even managed to finish second in the overall IRX Championship without having competed in all rounds, which was an unexpected bonus.

The PFCRX team now turn its attention to preparing for the start of the 2016 FIA European Rallycross Championship over the winter months, which gets underway at Mettet, Belgium next spring (May 14-15). The Fiesta's full livery and 2016 programme will be revealed in the New Year.

Derek Tohill | Driver | Ford Fiesta #11
"It was a great learning day for us at Mondello Park. The heats and Supercar final all went very well. We did run into a few simple issues, so the event was very valuable testing ahead of next season in the European Championship. It?s nice to test in public, especially at home in Ireland."

"Overall I had lots and lots of fun all day, I just love driving the car so much. It was great to get more seat time under my belt, and we improved our lap times on our previous time at Mondello by more than a second per lap. We will continue to work hard with the car and our infrastructure over the winter to prepare for 2016, the team is getting to know the car well and they did a good job preparing it for this weekend. We?re very happy to be working with partners such as OMSE and Mountune, it?s great to work with such professional outfits."

Coyne Takes National Rallycross Title

Posted: January 18, 2016 9:33 AM

Willie Coyne wrapped up the 2015 McLoughlin Industrial Flooring Irish Rallycross Championship at Mondello Park yesterday after an incident packed day of racing at the Kildare venue.

Coyne's finish of sixth in the Super Final was enough to secure the crown but earlier in the day Coyne looked a doubt to make it to the final race of the day. After an impressive performance in his opening two heats, disaster hit Coyne on his third heat where he retired on the first corner. His mechanics dived on the car and once fears over damaged steering were allayed, Coyne produced a determined drive in the Modified A final taking third place qualifying him for the Super Final. From there on it was a formality as Coyne only had to finish to take the title his brother Michael had previously won in 2009. Coyne kept out of trouble in a very entertaining race to cross the line in sixth place securing the title.

The Super Final was won by Noel Greene in his Mitsubishi who successfully fended off the challenge of a hard charging Derek Tohill who stalled at the start of the race. Tohill, who lost almost 10 seconds in the incident, was inspired in the 6 lap race, charging through the field to cross the line just .874 of a second behind Greene. Tohill could take some conciliation from the fact that he did win the Supercar Final in his stunning World Rallycross specification Ford Fiesta. Padraig Leeson took third in the Super Final in his 2.3 litre Opel Corsa after a tremendous day which also saw him win the Modified A Final.

Jake Dooley impressed in the Juniors to win the A Final and secured his second Junior Championship in his Toyota Starlet. Patrick Donoghue took the Rallycar Championship despite Rallycross debutant Shane Bell taking the honours on the day in his immensely powerful Subaru Impreza. The 16v Stockhatch Final saw John Ward take the chequered flag but he was given a time penalty as he forgot to take his mandatory "joker lap" demoting him to fifth and elevating Eoin Murray to first in his Peugeot 106 GTI. There was more Peugeot success in the 8v Stockhatch A Final where Ciar?n Murphy was the victor and his win also netted him the 8v Stockhatch Championship. Finally, in the cheap and cheerful Fiesta A Final, Peter Cambell took the win, narrowly edging out Dan McDonnell and Michael Leonard.

Results

Posted: January 18, 2016 9:27 AM

SUPER FINAL:
1 Noel Greene (Lancer Evo 9) 4m 00.94s,
2 Derek Tohill (Ford Fiesta Mk 7) 4m 01.82s,
3 Padraig Leeson (Vauxhall Corsa) 4m 06.34s,
4 Pearse Browne (BMW Compact) 4m 11.86s,
5 Lloyd Spendlove (Lotus Exige) 4m 13.56s,
6 Willie Coyne (Opel Corsa) 4m 16.68s.

SUPERCAR A FINAL:
1 Derek Tohill (Ford Fiesta Mk 7) 3m 19.42s,
2 Noel Greene (Lancer Evo 9) 3m 29.23s.

MODIFIED A FINAL:
1 Padraig Leeson (Vauxhall Corsa) 3m 29.20s,
2 Patrick Ryan (Vauxhall Nova) 3m 35.04s,
3 Willie Coyne (Opel Corsa) 3m 37.47s,
4 Pearse Browne (BMW Compact) 3m 37.67s,
5 Lloyd Spendlove (Lotus Exige) 3m 38.45s,
6 Kieran Curran (Vauxhall Corsa) 3m 39.50s.

MODIFIED B FINAL:
1 Richard Francis (Ford Escort Cosworth) 3m 54.42s,
2 Philip Kelly (Toyota MR2) 3m 56.45s,
3 Gordon Lynch (BMW E46) 3m 57.04s,
4 Chris Grimes (Vauxhaall Nova) 3m 59.99s.

STOCK HATCH 16 VALVE A FINAL:
1 Eoin Murray (Peugeot 106) 3m 38.55s,
2 Aaron Dalton (Peugeot 106) 3m 44.69s,
3 Eugene Ward (Peugeot 106) 3m 51.92s,
4 John Dowling (Peugeot 106) 3m 53.22s,
5 John Ward (Peugeot 106) 3m 55.57s.

STOCK HATCH 8 VALVE A FINAL:
1 Ciaran Murphy (Peugeot 205) 3m 47.25s,
2 Damian Farrell (Peugeot 205) 3m 50.31s,
3 Adrian Farrell (Peugeot 106) 3m 57.23s,
4 Damien O'Donovan (Peugeot 205) 3m 58.38s,
5 James O'Shea (Peugeot 106) 3m 58.75s,
6 Dan Dowling (Peugeot 205) 3m 59.19s.

STOCK HATCH 8 VALVE B FINAL:
1 Robert Herbert (Peugeot 205) 4m 02.01s,
2 Damien O'Donovan (Peugeot 205) 4m 03.01s,
3 Tom Murphy (Peugeot 205) 4m 44.45s.

JUNIOR A FINAL:
1 Jake Dooley (Toyota Starlet) 3m 56.61s,
2 William Kellett (Nissan Micra) 3m 59.59s,
3 Ben Mullins (Nissan Micra) 4m 12.57s,
4 Brian Martyn (Nissan Micra) 4m 14.29s,
5 William Quinn (Nissan Micra) 4 laps.

RALLY CAR A FINAL:
1 Shane Bell (Subaru Impreza) 3m 27.400s,
2 Patrick Donoghue (Peugeot 205) 3m 36.14s,
3 Jack Deegan (Peugeot 205) 3m 40.90s,
4 Padraig Denby (Peugeot 106) 3m 45.38s,
5 Dave Griffin (Ford Escort) 3m 49.96s,
6 William Cecil (Peugeot 205) 3m 51.11s.

FORD FIESTA A FINAL:
1 Peter Campbell 3m 52.53s,
2 Dan McDonnell 3m 56.14s,
3 Michael Leonard Jnr 3m 56.46s,
4 Wayne Boyd 3m 57.08s,
5 Dave Griffin 3m 58.04s,
6 Michael Tumulty 3m 58.38s.

FORD FIESTA B FINAL:
1 Dave Griffin 4m 07.77s,
2 Brian Matthews 4m 11.55s,
3 Vincent O'Rourke 4m 15.70s.

Regulations / Entry Form

Posted: October 22, 2015 9:13 AM

Available at:

Mondello Park Racing Circuit