Kirkistown Race Meeting Report 29th May 2010

The Second race weekend of the year with great results in the Irish Porsche Open Series

The 2nd May Bank Holiday weekend started in Kirkistown with the visit of the Mondello Park based Irish Porsche Open Race Series. Eight drivers made the trip “Up North” and were complimented by myself and other local man David Beatty (Porsche 964 Turbo) making his racing debut. With smaller than usual grids - now the norm during the recession - both of the Porsche Races where combined with the Kirkistown Saloons and GT classes. This made for a more promising 21 car grid to include Porsche, Ferrari, Lotus, Ford, Honda, and Vauxhall.

Qualifying - We were sent out on a drying track after short shower and it was obvious from the onset that the later part of the session would prove to be the fastest. My main competition came from Ronayne O’Mahoney in his Dunlop Supercar who managed a time of 104.476 just 3 tenths slower than my pole position which I set on that last lap of qualifying. The other Irish Porsches had a string of misfortunes with Bob Cameron’s GT2 having to pull in as he was destroying his wets in on the drying track, Phillip Jones (GT2) also failing to get a quick time on overheating wets and Pat O’Sullivan managed to set the engine bay of his 996 on fire with what turned out to be a minor oil leak.

Qualifying

1 Robin Titterington 104.124
2 Ronayne O’Mahoney 104.476
3 Wesley McCready 107.017

Porsche Open/GT/Saloon Race One - On pole position with a rear engined car against O’Mahoney in a front engined Ford meant that my start had to be good if I was to stand a chance of winning. From the red lights going out I made the perfect start leading the Dunlop Supercar of O’Mahoney into the first corner. I had increased my lead to 2 sec over the next few laps when I noticed in my mirror that Bob Cameron had caught and overtaken O’Mahoney. The next few laps I pushed on a hard as possible to gap the distance between us, incidentally setting my fastest lap of the race on lap 4. By lap 8 the challenge from Cameron had passed and he settled down for a safe second place. From then on I continued to lap consistently to the flag on lap 12 to win the race. Bob Cameron was less fortunate as he managed to run out of fuel on lap 9. Second place was inherited by O’Mahoney in the Dunlop Supercar with Phillip Jones picking up 3rd place. I was very pleased with “two” wins in one race being credited with points in both the Kirkistown GT Series and also the Porsche Irish Open Series.

Race One
1 Robin Titterington 12 laps 13:59.780
2 Ronayne O’Mahoney + 6.295
3 Phillip Jones + 17.548

Fastest Lap
Robin Titterington 1:02.758

Porsche Open/GT/Saloon Race Two - Who says it never rains but it pours? Race two was started with light rain falling - with the perfect choice of tyres being intermediates. With only slicks or wets I chose the slicks as there wasn’t any standing water but the track, however the surface was very slippy. The field was evenly split with drivers choosing to use slicks, full wets and intermediates. I was staring again from pole with the same objective of leading the race as I did in race one, however O’Mahoney on his intermediate shod Supercar had different ideas and he stormed into what would be an unassailable lead. I struggled for grip in the opening 6 laps and was hounded by Wesley McCready in his very nimble Lotus Elise, also out on intermediates. On each of the opening laps I would extend my lead on the main straights only for the Lotus to catch me each time in the “twisties” between Colonial and the Chicane. By lap 8 my tyres eventually heated up and with a damp-but-drying track I was able to pull clear. Over the final few laps I found myself in no-mans-land with O’Mahoney too far ahead to catch and I was well ahead of the 3rd place driver who was now Bob Cameron (with a full tank of fuel) in the GT2 after the Lotus unfortunately expired. It finished up the same at the end of the race. Interestingly the fastest lap times of the first 3 drivers were within 1 tenth of a second with the race times the same cars finished over 30 seconds apart! This shows how difficult the correct tyre choice was as there was no clear choice what tyres would work the best. The deciding element was the lead the Supercar was able to pull out on the opening laps of the race on intermediates. I was still very pleased with this result as I was credited with a race in the Irish Porsche Open Series and a 2nd place in the Kirkistown GT Series.

Race Two
1 Ronayne O’Mahoney 15 laps 17:00.086
2 Robin Titterington + 17.849
3 Bob Cameron + 34.803

Fastest Lap
Ronayne O’Mahoney 1:06.512

Summary -a great days racing with a mix of top saloons, GT’s and Porsches and also scoring maximum points in the Irish Porsche Open Series

Robin Titterington

——————————————————————————————————

Kirkistown Race Meeting Report 28th March 2009

First race weekend of the year proved successful with a race win in the Libre Saloon Race and 2nd place in the opening round of the Irish Porsche Open Racing Series.

Qualifying was a nightmare with the car behaving very badly and not wanting to rev above 2000rpm, even with two stops in the pits the fault wasn’t remedied meaning that the car didn’t qualify for the race. Fortunately for me the Clerk of the Course allowed me to start at the rear of the grid in 19th place! The mystery problem proved to be something stupid, as is often the case, as I must have inadvertently pressed the speed lane limiter function on in the car! I must admit to feeling a right prat when a fellow competitor told me that this caused the problem - I didn’t even know the car had one fitted to it!! The results of qualifying put Bob Cameron in his twin turbo 993 (the “flying pig”) and Mark Gilmartin in his 997 GT3 cup car on the front row of the grid.

Race- being at the back of the grid I at least new I was going to have some fun overtaking other cars in what was my first race in a GT3 Cup. I was happy to be at the rear for the start as I hadn’t really got used to the bite of the clutch, it feeling much different than my last 996. The start of the race was “entertaining” in that I got boxed in by other slower cars then having to swerve to miss Gilmartin’s 997 who had stalled his car on the start line. As the next few laps unfolded I passed most of the field and was closing in on the leading group heading by Cameron in his 993 turbo. The next lap round Cameron was parked at Colonial 1 with what turned out to be a broken drive shaft. On lap five I caught and passed the leaders and pressed on knowing that surely Gilmartin would chase me down after his poor start. I kept a close eye but the challenge from him never materialised and by lap 10 I new I’d win on my maiden outing. I crossed the finishing line 28 seconds ahead of Pat O’Sullivan in a 996 with Phillip Jones in 3rd place in my old car, another 996.

Libre Saloon Race Results
1 Robin Titterington 15 laps 16:19.209
2 Pat O’Sullivan + 28.559
3 Phillip Jones + 29.012

Fastest Lap
Robin Titterington 1:02.740

Porsche Open Race
Qualifying - needless to say the car went better with the speed limiter switched off!! The session was predictable and I managed to post the third best time behind Bob Cameron and Mark Gilmartin. I had been using the Dunlop slicks that had come with the car and not knowing how old or how much use they had I decided to put on a new pair of Michelin slicks to compete in both races. Needless to say a big thank you to Hollybrook for providing me support with the purchase of these.

Race- I lined up in third place and pointed my car between the 997 and 993 turbo of Gilmartin and Cameron hoping to slingshot through the middle if either of them got a poor start - no such luck! The first few laps Gilmartin lead from me with Cameron some way back in third. On lap 4 I passed Gilmartin under braking into the hairpin keeping up my pace to increase the lead by 5 sec on lap 6. On lap 7 & 8 it was evident that Cameron was catching me and by lap 9 he had powered past me on the main straight. The next 6 laps were amazing - genuine wheel to wheel racing with the cars touching when I tried to dive up the inside on lap 11 at the hairpin, Cameron shutting the door on me not giving an inch to get passed. Over the next few laps it was evident that I was much quicker from Debtors through to the chicane and Cameron faster on the straights. Cameron drove well by making his car as wide as possible through the twisty top section of the circuit (and it’s very wide to start with!) simply not giving me any opportunity to pass. On lap 13 I was getting frustrated and decided to try to out brake and pass him on the outside going into the hairpin. Well - I left my braking to well past the marshal’s post and braked as hard as I could (from about 150mph) and needless to say I made a mess of it and nearly ended up in Portaferry! By running wide Cameron was able to pull out a 30m gap and although I managed to reduce this I new I wasn’t going to win unless he made a mistake. I just kept pushing as hard as possible and was later rewarded with a new fastest lap on lap 12 - the fastest lap for a Porsche around Kirkistown.

Race results
1 Bob Cameron 15 laps 15:42.288
2 Robin Titterington + 2.124
3 Mark Gilmartin + 40.870

Fastest Lap
Robin Titterington 101.270 - new Porsche Open lap record

Summary -great start to the season with a win, podium and two fastest laps. The Porsche race was huge fun and looking at the overall race time of 15:42 it was 40 seconds faster than the Libre Saloon race giving a good indication of the frantic pace Bob Cameron and I where competing at. The switch from Dunlop to Michelin tyres pretty much transformed the car by giving it an extra 1.5 secs a lap. Overall a good day at the office. Thanks to Hollybrook for their support.

Robin Titterington