RACE day at Kirkistown took on an historic feel on Saturday thanks to the presence of 17 pre-1955 cars.
There was a full programme of racing, with all the regular classes and others but the Five Hundred Motor Racing Club of Ireland, which owns the circuit, was making a feature of older cars on the day.
In the first pre-55 race Andy Johnson, from Killinchy, was on pole by five seconds in his 1932 Alfa Monza, from Holywood’s Simon Brien, in a 1933 MG K3, and comfortably won the race with a margin of 74 seconds.
The day’s racing had begun earlier with a race for Libre Saloons which was won by Peter Baxter in a Seat Supercopa, ahead of Gavin Stanfield in his Subaru.
In the rematch later in the day Stanfield got his revenge after Baxter was forced to retire after coming off and hitting the tyre safety wall.
The second race on the programme was a combined affair for Roadsports, Globals and NI 7evens. Newtownabbey driver, Jim Larkham got back to his winning ways, leading from start to finish in his Radical PR6, from Youghal driver, Mike Ward in a similar machine.
The second race for the Roadsports provided the same result of Larkham first and Ward second.
The Formula Vees were making a welcome return to Kirkistown. In their first race, Kieran Hannan, from Dublin, won by a remarkable seven seconds. The second race was a much more typical Formula Vee race with 3.6 seconds covering the first six cars at the finish with Colm Blackburn, from Ballyfermot, winning.
The Kirkistown Mini Coopers and Kirkistown Fiestas formed a combined grid of 14 cars. In the first of two races, Tandragee driver, Peter Bennett, led from start to finish in the Minis. In the Fiestas, Adrian Mulready, from Clonshaugh, took the win. Graham was second and Neville Anderson, from Loughbrickland, was third. In the second race, first and second places were the same in the Minis, with Craig Gilmore, from Ballyhalbert, taking third.
Both FF1600 races were thrillers. In race one the lead was disputed from the off by David McCullough, from Ballymena, Morgan Quinn, from Kill, Dave Parks, from Ballina and Jason Smyth, from Celbridge, before Smyth took the win.
In the second race, Smyth passed McCullough for the lead on lap three and opened a small lead that he would keep, winning with a three second gap over Quinn and McCullough, who were separated by half a second at the line.
Rob Kennedy, from Carrickmacross, took a strong win in the first Modi-5-Cup race for Mazda MX5s. Moira’s Francis Allen was second, ahead of Craig Ewing, from Dundonald, in third place.
The second race was a reversed grid so Rob Kennedy started at the back. This was a very entertaining race which was eventually won by Ewing with Kennedy second.
It is hoped that the appearance of the pre-1955 cars might become an annual event. In the meantime, the BOSS Ireland cars are coming back to Kirkistown on August 31 to compete for the Malcolm Templeton Trophy.
