Sunday 25th was round 2 of the 2021 championship at Waterford raceway which was kindly sponsored by Barry Metal Recycling. As well as the usual 3 rounds of racing, the prestigious Ian O’Leary cup was up for grabs in the big race of the afternoon for the senior drivers. Not to be outdone the juniors and rookies were looking forward to their own finale of the day when they were racing for the SOS & Weston cups. Thankfully it was an ideal day for racing which was very much welcomed after the torrential rain on raceday 1 brought proceedings to an abrupt end.
Class 1 saw some great battles throughout the day but in the end Darragh O’Shea was the most consistent to take the raceday win ahead of Paddy O’ Sullivan (2nd) and Darragh Walsh (3rd) on what was his first day out in the senior ranks after great success in the junior ranks. Class 2 was missing a few regular drivers but that didn’t stop the evergreen Pat Ryan from giving a great display of driving to take the win with Conor Harty 2nd. Class 3 was well represented with some very quick and experienced drivers battling it out for the bragging rights. Jason Ryan eventually came out on top with Paul Fitzgerald taking 2nd just ahead of Ronan Bennett. David O’Leary was top man in class 4 with some great driving in his well prepared 206. Padraig Smiddy settled for 2nd as he settles into his new drive and Mick Boland grabbed the final step on the podium. Paul Weston was the lone class5 car on the day. He is still getting used to the car after a big step up from stocks but is certainly enjoying the experience and is getting quicker all the time. Stocks and ladies classes were raced together on the day due to a number of drivers missing. Catherine Walsh took the win in the ladies but was also up to the challenge of taking the race wins ahead of the stocks of PJ O’Sullivan (1st) and Joe Dilworth (2nd).
1B is looking to be very competitive this season with a lot of experienced drivers in the mix. Peter Keohane -driving Ross Ryan’s car – wasn’t holding back and ended the day on the top step of the podium with Richie Power and Nathanya Houlihan completing the camera shots at the end of day presentations. With the high number of entries in the junior and rookie classes, each was divided into 2 groups for the day. The returning Ted McGrath took the honours in the group A of the production juniors while James Deane finished 2nd just ahead of Ross Ryan. Group B honours on the day went to Liam Og Power with Callum O Shea 2nd and Nathan Graham taking 3rd. Cole Mc Gann was top man in the rookies group A with Daryl Deane 2nd and Callum Power 3rd. Group B was won by Owen O Brien ahead of Daniel Fitzgerald while there was no separating Luke O’Connell and Ronan Sisk in the battle for 3rd place.
And so onto the cup races with Cole McGann proving too strong for the other drivers to take the rookie A cup ahead of Callum Power and Davan Leahy. Owen O’Brien also continued his good day to take home the cup in group B while Luke O’Connell (2nd) and Conor Burke completed the podium. Possibly the most exciting finish of the day was in the group A of the production juniors cup race . Long time leader Eoin Burke was reeled in whereby on the last lap any 1 of 4 drivers could take the win. Door to door and bumper to bumper they went into the last corner and just on the line Ross Ryan got nothing more than his front bumper ahead of Eoin Burke to take the win while James Deane grabbed 3rd and Ted McGrath was 1 to lose out. Finally the Ian O’Leary cup race saw cars from all senior classes take to the line. The handicapping proved to be spot on as the higher powered cars got into the mix towards the end of the race but Darragh O’Shea held on to take the win ahead of Ronan Coughlan and Davy Banville.
The club wish to thank everyone present for helping to make it a memorable day’s racing.
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