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Burke Wins Mayo Autocross By A Whisker

Posted: August 26, 2010 12:35 PM

An extraordinary close finish saw Walter Burke from Williamstown take victory on Mayo & District Motorsport Club’s Loose Surface Autocross event on Sunday. The Ford Escort driver defeated James McGreal from Foxford by the smallest possible of margins – a mere one hundredth of a second!

Up to date results for the Frank Harrington Challenge are also available to view on the autocross page. A healthy field of forty competitors had assembled for round four of Mayo Motorsport Club’s popular autocross series held at Harrington’s Quarry near Swinford, with all eyes on James McGreal to see if the Subaru driver could repeat his victory of the previous round. The Foxford man wasn’t long getting into his stride, setting a fastest time of 4:26.07 on the first of three timed runs. He was less than half a second up on nearest challenger Andrew Mackarel from Fermanagh, with the class 2 Vauxhall Nova of Maynooth’s Ciaran McCullagh an incredible third overall – this despite breaking an engine mount, and up against much more powerful machinery.

Walter Burke languished in eighth place at this point, but things were to get worse for the Williamstown man. Clipping a bank, he failed to set a time on the second run, pulling out with damaged steering. McGreal meanwhile was on a mission, taking a whopping fifteen seconds from his first effort. Nobody could live with his pace, the Mitsubishi of Martin Tynan from Clones now the nearest rival, but nearly six seconds behind – a lifetime in motorsport terms.
On to the final run, and when McGreal pulled another two and a half seconds out of the bag to set a time of 4:08.24, most assumed that victory was his. That was to ignore former winner Burke however. Fired up after the disappointment of his second run, and with the Escort now back to full health, Walter positively flew around the course, stopping the clocks at 4:08.23, nearly twenty three seconds faster than his opening attempt. Victory was his, but it couldn’t have been closer.

The top ten was rounded out by Michael Sweeney from Boyle in another Mitsubishi followed by the leading class 2 car – the Peugeot 205 of Padraic Cawley from Coolaney. Behind him Ciaran McCullagh had failed to set times on either the second or third runs, but his effort from the opening test was still good enough to net ninth overall and second in class 2. Another Mayo competitor was tenth, Shrule’s Matthew Murphy putting in a fine drive in his Toyota Corolla to win class 3 in the process. Other award winners included Ballinrobe’s David Walsh and Mervyn Fahy, first and second in class 4 double-driving the same Opel Astra, while in class 1 Sean Mullervy beat his Drumlish team-mate Eamonn Brady by just over half a second in their shared Honda Civic. The Chris Culkeen award for highest placed Mayo Motorsport Club competitor went to Justin Ryan from Headford.

After a period of domination of Mayo autocross events by four-wheel-drive cars, Walter Burke proved on Sunday that a well driven rear-wheel-drive Escort is still a force to be reckoned with. The final round of the 2010 series takes place in October – will the 4WD men bounce back then?

Photos:

Posted: August 26, 2010 12:34 PM

Hassett Motorsport Photography

Full Results

Posted: August 26, 2010 12:28 PM

1 Walter Burke (Escort) 4m 08.23s
2 James McGreal (Impreza) 4m 08.24s
3 Andy Mackarel (Lancer Evo 4) 4m 12.63s
4 James Lannon (Lancer Evo 9) 4m 13.53s
5 Martin Tynan (Lancer Evo) 4m 16.95s
6 Joe Cullen (JB Buggy) 4m 20.49s.

Class winners:
Sean Mullervy (Civic) 4m 42.15s
Padraic Cawley (Corsa) 4m 24.46s
Matthew Murphy (Corolla) 4m 27.38s
Davy Walsh (Astra) 4m 35.21s
James McGreal
Joe Cullen

Mayo Autocross - 8 Aug 10 - Full Results