Saturday Sept.4th and Sunday 5th once again drew large crowds to Waterford Raceway’s home at The Pike for rounds 5 &6 of the 2021 championship. Saturday, which was kindly sponsored by Kieran Sanford Motors, saw 3 rounds of racing as the points start adding up for the drivers in their attempt to gain the top prizes at the end of the year.
Cole McGann is having a great season in the rookies and proved to be the man to beat once again. In the end he did enough to take the raceday honours ahead of Owen O’Brien and Conor Burke with all 3 taking a race win each. Ross Ryan was the most consistent in the junior class over the 3 races and stood on the highest step of the podium in the evening with James Deane a very close 2nd and an unlucky Toby McGuire settling for 3rd after he developed mechanical issues in the 2nd race. Class 1 was well represented with some very experienced drivers in the mix and 3 different drivers taking the chequer flag during the course of the day. Young gun Darragh Walsh, in his first season as a senior driver, proved that experience isn’t everything as he grabbed the raceday win ahead of Davy Banville (2nd) and Darragh O’Shea (3rd). Eddie Baldwin had a faultless day in class 2 as he attained maximum points with 3 wins. Mick Boland finished 2nd at the end of the day with Michael Coughlan 3rd. Class 3 honours went to Jason Ryan after an ongoing battle with Michael Baldwin throughout the day and Liam Fitzgerald taking the final step on the podium. Class 4 was well represented on the day which led to some great racing and jostling for positions with 3 drivers taking a win each by the end of the day. Padraig Smiddy eventually took the raceday win after proving the most consistent with Raymond D’Arcy 2nd and Peter Wall 3rd. Paul Weston took the win in class 5 while Jenny Morahan impressed with her driving in the ladies. After a sluggish start to the year Joe Dilworth now has his car humming sweetly and challenging in every race – so well in fact he took the raceday win ahead of PJ O’Sullivan. The adult 1b class was down in numbers from usual but it didn’t take from the entertainment as Damien Bennett and Peter Keohane were bumper to bumper as the battled away throughout the 3 races. Damien held his nerve to take maximum points with Peter left scratching his head wondering what more he could have done as he settled for 2nd with Jonathon McGovern 3rd.
Sunday, which was kindly sponsored by Deasy Coaches, dawned with a number of weary eyed people around the pits after some frantic work was done on some cars overnight to have them ready for the day. Paddy Sullivan was 1 of those and his hard work paid off with a much improved showing in class 1 as he finished the day in 2nd place ,just 1 point behind Davy Banville with Darragh Walsh having to settle for 3rd this time out. Class 2 brought up the same result as the previous day. Despite no maximum points this time ,Eddie Baldwin did enough to take another raceday win with Mick Boland 2nd and Michael Coughlan 3rd. Paul Fitzgerald rolled back the years in class3 to take a creditable win in a very competitive class as Jason Ryan had to settle for 2nd and Michael Baldwin 3rd. David O’Leary had a busy evening on Saturday and even more stress on Sunday morning to get his damaged car back to racing condition. His hard work paid off as he secured 2 race wins in class 4 to take the overall win ahead of Padraig Smiddy and Kevin Condon. Paul Weston continued to accumulate championship points in class 5 and Jenny Morahan once again impressed in the ladies class. Stocks was once again hard to call but PJ O’Sullivan reversed the previous day’s result by getting the better of Joe Dilworth. The battle of the west Cork men continued in Adult 1B with Peter Keohane edging out Damien Bennett this time with new man Dean Ward driving well to take a creditable 3rd. Davan Leahy was Mr. consistent in the rookie class with 3 2nd places finishes to take the overall honours . Paddy Fitzgerald sorted out the mechanical gremlins that haunted him on Saturday and secured 2nd place on the day with Daniel Fitzgerald 3rd. Toby McGuire was top man in the junior class with Darragh Healy 2nd and James Deane 3rd.
As if 6 races each over a 24 hour period wasn’t enough for all the drivers , they had to get back in the zone once again as the Dick Mackey cup was still to be claimed by 1 of the senior drivers while the juniors and rookie had to concentrate on coming out on top and grab the Thomas O’Sullivan cups. Dean Deasy took an early lead in the rookie cup race and as the race progressed the pack were reeling him in but Dean held his nerve and claimed the win, to retain the cup he won in 2020, just ahead of Daniel Fitzgerald and Davan Leahy crossing the line in 3rd. We had some very eager drivers in the Juniors which caused the cup race to be restarted after a ‘coming together’. When the chequer flag was eventually produced it was James Deane who was first across the line followed home by Ross Ryan and Liam Og Power. The Dick Mackey cup had cars from 1,2,3 &4 taking their position on the starting grid. With the class 4 cars starting a lap and a half down on the first car away they had their work cut out for them to get the win. Although they made good head way through the pack the laps ran out for them and Michael Baldwin (class 3) got his hands on the cup ahead of Paddy Sullivan and Darragh Walsh who both drove their class 1 cars to the maximum to keep the class 4 cars just behind them.
The club wish to thank everyone who helped to make it another successful weekend at the Pike with a special thank you to the Mackey and O’Sullivan families for being present to present the respective cups and trophies.
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