Mondello Park 6 Hours 2008

Race one in the 2008 Fun Cup took place at Mondello Park Ireland on 26th April.

Qualifying :

The SPAR / Cuisine de France car was driven by Ian Connell, Marc Connell and Peter Cate. Qualifying was a busy affair with 30 cars vying for position. After earlier set up issues in practice, we found better grip for qualifying and felt more confident for the race.

The Race:

The staring line up saw us draw 9th on the grid. Marc started the race and was quickly up to good pace settling in well in 6th place and happy to settle in to line in touch with the leaders. At the one hour mark, Ian took over and once again initially held 6th place. Then a car spun in front of Ian at the last corner but one and to avoid a collision, Ian had to take to the grass where unfortunately a very bumpy ride led to a damaged front nose and severe vibration as the set up was compromised. A pit stop to replace the nose dropped us to 12th place and one lap now behind the leaders.

Over the next couple of hours we edged our way back up to 5th place but still a lap behind the leaders. It was time to take a gamble and try and get ourselves the lap back and back onto the leaders’ tails!
We calculated we could miss one a refueling stop and get back on the lead lap...It nearly worked but just ½ a lap from the next refueling pit window opening Marc ran out of fuel….we need less than ½ a litre and it would have been ok!

Towed in we refueled but also had to replace the fuel pump, so dropped several laps behind to 19th place. Pete did a great final stint to drive up back up to 13th place over the last 90 minutes or so.

So a fun and exciting race... not the result we expected but the gamble was worth a try!

The next race

The next race is the Anglesey in June, when Richard Connell returns to driving duties... we need to out thinking caps on & find some pace and a better set up by then, as the “Perry’s” car was hussled along fantastically quickly by Eugene O’Brien at a pace we just could not get close too.