Formula VEE Ireland

Leinster Trophy Meeting 2009

Keno

Team Manager/Racer

Thursday Night
Having dropped Morgans and Dans cars to Mondello earlier in the day I was able to get the final few jobs done on my car and load up all the tools and spares. Chris was down to give a hand and we made short work of it, even having time to mould a seat for my car. By 9.30 we were finished up and ready for the morning.

Friday
On the road at 7.30 and the sun is out as I head down the N7 wondering what kind of weekend i'm in for, up for grabs are the rookie championship for Morgan, the national championship for Dan and on Sunday I'll be joining them to try and win the Leinster Trophy. A lot to be won or lost in a single weekend!
I arrive at the track and while Chris sets up I sign on for testing and take Morgan and Paula Moore around the track for one final lesson.

Even though we were at the track early Morgan is the only one ready to go on track when it opens at 9.30, my battery has gone flat and Dan's only just arrived! By 9.45 I'm strapped into the car and ready to hit the track. I get a jump start in the garage and head up pit lane only for the red flag to come out! This means I have to turn off the engine and will need a push. The session restarts and I get a push from Kev and Ray with the car firing first time, unfortunately as I left the pit lane I revved the cold engine too hard bursting the oil filter and leaving all the oil from my engine all the way up to turn 1, I spotted the problem when the oil light came on and killed the engine and rolled in the back gate while the marshalls cursed me.
Next session and all 3 cars are out with Dan having to take it easy on his new engine and me hoping to get some laps in. I have a wheel problem mid session and have to stop but the other cars are going ok so that's good. Session 3 and I wrongly get black flagged for dropping oil but decide it's better not to upset the marshalls and park the car for the session.The session ends and Morgan has lost his exhaust and Dan's car is misfiring and handling badly but the brakes are ...shit, a bit of work to be done!!
I think it's better to park my car and concentrate on Dan's while Chris sorts out Morgans exhaust and we get both cars out for the next session, Morgans car runs fine for the rest of the day but it takes several sessions to get Dans sorted leaving little time for me to get out.
By 4oc both drivers had done decent lap times and had parked their cars for the day so I could get out in the last session for a few laps.The session was a short one but I managed a reasonable time so I was happy enough. Time to pack up clean the cars and give them final checks before scrutiny in the morning.

Saturday
Leave the house at 7 with Dave tagging along whose making a film about the Leinster Trophy (keep an eye out!!) A good start to the day was that we actually got to the track (see racedays vee on u tube) and had both cars through scrutiny by 8oc.
We get lined up for qualifying and as the cars head out I notice Gavin Barr has a problem with his throttle so I give him a quick hand to sort it. Qualifying could have been better with Dan lining up ninth and Morgan 21st with Dan having brake problems and Morgan failing to get a clear lap.We eventually found the problem with Dans brakes so he was looking good for the race.

When the lights went out Dan made a good start initially but got squeezed out at turn 1 dropping him to 10th while Morgan was catching the cars in front.When the flag came out Dan was 7th and Morgan 14th with both drivers picking up places in the race. No problems with either cars so it's a quick check and a refuel before the next race. Race 2 and Dan gets caught in an 8 car battle for the lead eventually finishing 6th while Morgan works his way up the field before spinning twice on lap 5 to drop him back to 21st.

Championship over and Kelly's the winner (well done Brian) Dan's 5th in the national championship and Morgan 3rd in th rookies with both drivers scoring points in every round. Not a bad year for KERS motorsport! Anyway there's a barbeque tonight and the Leinster trophy tomorrow before the season is over.

Sunday
Stayed at track on Saturday night so up and ready to go at 7.30 on Sunday morning. I've got my car through scrutiny on Sat so we just have to prepare for qualifying, Morgan's in the first session and me and Dan are in the second.

Morgans session is without problems but Dan notices a problem on the way to the assembly area, a quick look tells us he has a broken front hub. There's no easy fix for this so he borrows Morgans car to do the mandatory 3 laps to get on the back of the grid. I head out for qualifying but it doesn't take long to notice my new seat is too big and with some small mistakes on the last lap I struggle for pace. When the flag comes out I'm 14th on the grid, Morgan is midfield and Dan is dead last because of his car change.Some frantic work starts to get Dans and my car sorted for the race but we only have an hour and clearly were not gonna get all 3 cars out for the race. Dan can fit in my car and there's no chance of getting his car fixed in time I reluctantly hand my car over to him.

As the cars line up for the qualifying race I tell Dan he needs to pass 10 cars on the 1st lap, he says he'll try. When the lights go out Dan makes a cracking start and by the end of the 1st lap he's passed 27 cars and is up to 5th!! Morgan has lost a few places while exploring the scenery on the opening lap but none of this matters as the red flag comes out on lap 2 meaning a full restart from original grid positions putting Dan all the way to the back of the grid. Meanwhile some clown is trying to get Moore excluded from the race for missing the original start but myself, Paul and Ray give him some advice and the COC decides he can start the race from his front row position.

At the restart Dan gets boxed in but still makes good progress through the field and Morgan is flying too. When the flag comes out Dan is 5th having caught the leaders while Morgan is an impressive 8th holding off the recovering Paul Sammin on the last lap. For the final Dan is 15th on the grid and Morgan is 18th.

When the Leinster Trophy Gets underway Dan quickly moves into the top 10 and Morgan is also gaining places before a mid race spin drops him down the order.Dan works his way up to 7th when the race is stopped because of an incident, with Morgan having little time to make up for his spin leaving him 21st. Garry Newsome wins the race and takes home the Leinster Trophy after a great drive, Well done Garry.

Next race is the Vee festival in Brands at the end of October with Morgan competing and I might have a go myself. A big thanks to Leastone racing, Stena line, Total lubricants and Cregornews.com for all their help throughout the year.

Other Reports
Keno Cregor Trevor Fergus Springey

Trevor

Chairman / Class Co-ordinator

Friday 11th September
6:30 am:
Alarm goes off – Question my sanity for getting up at this hour to head to Mondello on a weekend I’m not even going to get a few practice laps in the car!! Press the snooze button!

6:35am:
Alarm goes off again. Sanity question still not answered. Press snooze button again! 6:40am:
Alarm goes off again. I’m insane. Get up this time! 7:37am:
Leave house and head off to Mondello! 7:45am:
Driving through Monagear see a man out walking his dogs and putting stuff into the recycling bins. Very environment minded I think. Very good of him to save the planet while I head off to look after a bunch of guys who will consume petrol at a combined average rate of 37 litres per minute when they are all out on track!

8:10am:
Stop for daysul and a coffee to go!

9:05am:
Arrive at Mondello. Get accosted by John Heavey who tells me I’m late! I agree! He was only joking! Start prepping my VEE for Roy Tobin who is driving my car for the weekend! John starts unpacking the Marquee!

10:00am:
Start building the Marquee with John and Joe (Close).

10:30am:
Roy heads out for his first run of the day! Back to assembling the Marquee. Finally we get it right!

1:00pm:
Roof section of Marquee done! I’m officially no use any more (my neck!) so take a wander and catch up with a few drivers! Break the news to Gavin Barr that he is officially reserve for the two championship races! Nowhere to even get a cup of coffee around this place. Where is James when you need him!

1:30pm:
Meet with treasurer to go through figures for the year to date

2:30pm:
Cigarette break! Hey – the marquee has its roof cover and legs!

2:35pm:
Back to treasurer!

3:30pm:
Its official, were nearly broke!! (only kidding!) Marquee fully assembled. John and Joe had shanghi’d Gavin Barr and Damien Flynn at carious points to help! Well done all!
Catch up with Roy – car is going well and he is happy enough!

4:30pm:
Still yapping to various drivers! Get banners etc for the marquee. Marquee is looking well!

5:00pm:
Coffee!! At last! (And many thanks to the guy who went to the village to get it!!)

5:30pm:
Testing finished, Roy heads off! Start cleaning and polishing the car! Get distracted and chat to Michael Sweeney for a while!!

7:00pm:
Car finally clean and paint touched up! Check oil & Petrol – I think it is ready for the morning! Stick VEE Notices for tomorrow on the marquee and the side of Johnny’s truck! Bump into Robbie Allen!

8:10pm:
Finally leave the circuit and head to hotel in Clane! Get some food, check that everything is order for the weekend. Check email, pick up latest VEE Entry list – no last minute entries! Keel over!

Saturday 12th September

6:45am:
Alarm goes off. The sanity question rears its ugly head again. Hit snooze button!

6:50am:
Alarm goes off again. It’s an easier decision this time – I’m definitely insane and probably should be committed! Get up and make a cup of coffee while I wake up slowly!

7:25am:
Leave hotel. Go to local petrol station to get a decent coffee to drink on the way.

7:45am:
Arrive at track. John Heavey already there – putting the final touches to the marquee in the form of photos – there is so much ‘ammo’ in those photos! Even Leo Nulty with hair!!. Jimmy furlong showed me the oil painting he has of him racing – pretty cool! It gets hung in the marquee!

8:05am:
Bring the car down to scrutiny with Roy. No bother (as they say down here!)

9:00am:
Burco not boiled yet, decide to go to ‘food place’ to get a coffee! Bump into LMC officials and end up discussing race & organisational things with them.

9:20am:
Over to assembly area – Roy all set to go!

9:30am:
Qualifying starts! Gaving Barr has trouble with a stuck open throttle. Ken Elliott gives him a hand and he gets out just in time!

9:55am:
Parc Fermee: All seemed to make it safely back! Aaagh! Roy has been using my nose cone as a bumper ;) Not to worry! Nothing a rivet and some duct tape can’t fix! Have to stay around for a few more minutes for discussions witht eh class scrtineers.

10:05am:
First trip of the day to race control – this one with Paula Moore to get the CoC to give her permission to race (she didn’t get the obligatory 3 laps in qual due to mechanical problems) – permission granted!

10:10am:
Second trip to race control! For Gavin Barr this time, same reason! Pemission granted!

10:20am:
Coffee from the wonderful Formula VEE Marquee!!

10:30am:
Fix nose cone!

10:50am:
Third trip to race control – this time to talk to Paul Grogan (timekeeper) about getting second fastest qual times for the afternoon race! They’ll be ready by 11:30am.

10:55am:
Head over to Suite 3 for drivers briefing. Straightforward until another class starts argueing about the safety car procedure. VEE lads are fed up, not used to arguments in meetings any more! Anyway, gave ‘em their obligatory ‘pep talk’ after CoC was finished!

11:30am:
Start getting ready for race 1!

11:45am:
Over to assembly area! Roy all set to go!

11:55am:
Head from assembly area to the control tower (the 4th time!) this time to join Matt & Leo for race commentary. Great race!! Championships all still wide open! Pop over to Parc Fermee after the race to catch up with scrutineers!

12:30pm:
Get results of race and sit down in Marquee (with a coffee, after a cigarette!!!) and do up Championship ladders. Jimmy Furlong and Adam Macaulay pop in – and let me know that Adam has won the Refresh/‘B’ championship – Shows how tired I was – I still thought it was open and I had all the figures in front of me!!!

1:30pm
Cigarette (again!), distribute ladders, another coffee!

1:45pm
Fix the electrics on my (Roy’s!) VEE – a few loose wires! All done. Cup of tea!

2:20pm
Back to Marquee – Get to sit down for a few minutes with nothing to do!!!

3:30pm
Maria, Charlotte & Zachary arrive!

4:00pm
Race 2. Brian Kelly takes the FDS National Championship. Over to parc fermee after the race, calm one driver. Called to CoC.

4:40pm
Head over to CoC – dealing with various disciplinary issues until half five.

5:30pm
Try to get prizegiving organised!

5:45pm
Prizegiving eventually gets going!

6:00pm
BBQ gets under way! Eventually I decide that I’m going to putt rank and skip the queue to get food!!! Probably a good idea!

8:00pm
Do final championship ladders and email to cregor. Do qualifying ‘grids’ for LT qualifying sessions in the morning.

8:30pm
Start leaving the track to head to the hotel!

10:00pm
Actually leave the track! 1

0:20pm
Arrive at hotel – get 20 minutes to chat with Maria before we keel over!

Sunday 13th September

7:10am
Woken by Charlotte! Well at least it’s only 20 minutes before the alarm was supposed to go off!

7:20pm
get up! Breakfast etc!

8:50am
Leave hotel! Enthusiasm waning cos I have an idea what sort of day is ahead of me.

9:02am
Arrive at track! Grab a coffee and make sure Roy is OK and ready to go!

9:15am
1st Qualifying session

9:30am
Called to COC. (meanwhile second qual session goes on!)

9:45am
Do grids. Chats with drivers about length of LT race.

10:00am
Back to CoC

10:20am
Discussions with timekeepers over length of LT Final.

10:30am
Catch up with scrutineers!

11:00am
Coffee – finally! Called to CoC for an incident in qualifying – sorted! Do grids for qualifying race

11:45am
Cars to assembly for LT qualifier race. Various discussions with Race Control, CoC, Timekeepers etc to decide length of LT race – eventually conclude that 17 minutes is the correct length as the race leaders should cross the line between 17 minutes and 20 seconds and 17 minutes and 30 seconds – if they pass the line at 16:59 then they will have broken the lap record seven times at least!!!!
No notes after here but the rest of the day was spent getting grief over one of yesterdays incidents, and dealing with the CoC over todays disciplinary issues. The LT race was at 4pm. Went up to commentary and was disgusted to see that it had been shortened to 15 minutes particularly after the amounts of time I’d spend making sure all the drivers knew it was 17minutes, and even more disgusted when the red flag came out after 11 minutes – so were the crowd in the stand as they just left the circuit. By the time I eventually got away from disciplinary & CoC it was nearly 6pm. Seriously questioned my sanity for doing this job. Finally got to see my family for more than 30 seconds for the first time since they had arrived – and they had arrived around 11:30am!
Amazing how a small handful of drivers can cause so much grief and give the class a bad name – and yet the 40 other drivers who drove perfectly all weekend are forgotten. Anyway – gave a hand taking down the last of the marquee, said thanks to everyone who helped and headed home – eventually getting in the door at 8:30pm.
Thank goodness it’s all over!

Other Reports
Keno Cregor Trevor Fergus Springey

Cregor

Photographer

I start the weekend on the back foot. I spent Friday in bed with a cold and am still feeling the effects of it at the 8 o clock start. I have a mountain of gear to bring for the weekend, no beer on Friday means I've a clearer head than normal, but am starving. I get to Mondello, which looks packed probably for the first time this season. The VEE marquee looks the biz, I drop off a couple of photo boards there, and go looking for Ray Moore. I leave a couple of logbook photos with The Boss and head for the sign on. I ring Jenny to see does she need a coffee but someone has already looked after her. There's a large tin of lollies in the tower, several find there way to my pocket, I'm a fan of Chupa Chups.

The VEE's are out at 9.30 and I head to the cantina. Qualifying is usually a nice oasis of calm for me, and I take the opportunity to eat. They say breakfast is the best meal of the day, and this is definitely true in Mondello. I think it's the only edible meal, as I don't like the chunky chips they serve at lunchtime. Terry joins me and we talk shop while we eat. Robert Casey secures pole while I'm eating.

I finish eating and go to fit cameras, I'm fitting Javier's when he's approached by a driver from another class. The pair had clashed in testing early in the season. It was clearly the other driver's fault but he starts to burn Javier's ears and blaming him for the incident. I leave them to it but when it's still going on after 10 mins, I call Javier into the awning and tell him not to be listening to codgers like that. His response gives me a good laugh. The sun is heating up so I put on some factors.

I go and find Dave Smyth to arrange a photo op on Sunday for the VEE drivers and the Leinster Trophy. I meet Mark Kelly on the ay and when he says he enjoyed my blog from the Park I get a promise from him of one in the future. Barry Gregg a budding photographer offers me some VEE photos and I tell him I'll put a gallery of his shots on the website. He looks hot and I give him some factors too. It's time to start racing.

I go out to the country for the opening VEE race that is won by Brian Kelly in convincing style. Kershaw crashes out and the title race is opened up again. I go to the marquee for a bit of lunch. I float around the paddock for a while after and am in the KERS garage when the Libre race starts. Paul Heavey has a spark plug problem, and the team go about changing them for him in record time. It's organised chaos but impressive to watch and Heavey gets into the race. I head to turn one at 3 o clock. I meet one of the Canadian marshals here for the weekend. I lived in Canada for a couple of years so we have a chat about things Canadian Eh. Grant sees me eating a lolly but falls short of calling me the thief that I am. You have to hustle for food at the track. I watch the Global race that Alan Byrne wins on the line from Max. I sit on the bank with Con Brady for a while and enjoy the sunshine. We don't gossip about anyone. I talk to a couple of guys who are here from a camera club then it's time for the VEE race. Grant informs me when they are on the last lap and Brian Kelly takes the race and the title.

I head back to the paddock and start organising the Barbie. I've only got two barbies and need three. Ger Byrne comes to the rescue, thanks Ger. I have to compromise my principals and sell out to gas but the show must go on. The food cooks well especially the prawns Javier has brought, and everyone seems happy. The heat of the barbies has lifted by cold and I feel better...Sweaty times.
I finish the cooking; the lovely Scilachi has dropped by and we go for a walk round the paddock to cool me down. I then have to recover cameras and post results. I finish working at half ten and go to the marquee for a few beers. CregorNews race videos are playing on a large screen telly. We catch last orders in the bar and I'm fit for bed by midnight. I notice the stars as I head to my lodgings. They look brilliant without the city light pollution.

I awake Sunday morning with a headache. I go and find Hal and Des from the Fiats and Strykers to discuss tv. Des sorts me out with some brecky and I can take the all-important solphos. I discover Keno has been out for the Leinster Trophy qualifying but has since given his car away for the race. I'm disappointed, he really had a chance of winning I reckon, but I understand why he gave his car away and probably would have done the same myself. 11 am and it's time for the Leinster Trophy qualifying. The Doc has camera problems that I sort for him in the holding area with Kershaw's tools, you're a lifesaver Stephen. I watch the race from Dunlop and the pits. I then hover around the paddock for the Fiat and Sheane races.

Lunchtime and I head for the start line. The VEE drivers are all waiting for me with the Leinster Trophy, thanks to Bernie and Joe. DF had the idea they should wear their suits and this improves the look of the photo. Good thinking, and the photos look great. I grab a sambo from the marquee. Scilachi arrives for the big race with my Ma and sister. The family hear Keno is not racing and they are not happy, I'm thinking join the club. I hear Leo on the tannoy talking about the Supercar race; a safety car is deployed but the drivers are racing to the line. One driver gets punted off the track, I'm highly amused. I go to the marquee for a cold drink. Gillian and her mate Shaunagh are doing a great job serving the drinks. It's the strangest thing to go in there as I'm roaring out of the telly (it's turned up loud) in the corner as the videos play.

The big race itself is a let down as it's stopped early. Trevor Delaney beaches his car in the gravel and apparently needs the help of the Rescue Van to get out. The red flagged race is not restarted. Garry Newsome wins. I think he would have won from a restart anyway but a two-lap dash for the cash would have not hurt anyone. The podium is after the Abarth race. Robbie Allen has been penalised for a jump-start, so Brian Kelly and Dave O Brien have both been promoted a place.

I finish up around the paddock and say goodbye to people for another year. The season has flown by. The lads are taking down the marquee and everything is packed away. I go to the bar and have some goujons. Mondello look after their Track team very well and they have trays of food for them at the end of the day. Grant sees me with the food and accuses me of depriving starving Marshalls. I have a good laugh at this; they'll never need the help of Bob Geldof.

Bob and I leave the track at about half six and after sitting down in the car for almost the first time that day, I fall asleep and dream about next years Leinster Trophy.......