Kirkistown 29-5-10

David Heavey gave the latest spec JH004 a promising debut at Kirkistown last weekend even if the end result didn’t show it. Paul Heavey finished the car late on Thursday night, a version of JH004 with subtle updates in an attempt to keep ahead of the ever competitive Vee field. Heavey’s testing programme was hampered somewhat with gearbox trouble, forcing a gearbox change that evening while the younger Heavey made his way back from the end of a working shift in the Sudan.

Damp qualifying made for tricky conditions but Heavey still put in a time good enough for 6th on the grid, a position which he surely would have improved on had a rear hub seal not been leaking subsequently compromising his braking around the super fast Kirkistown circuit.

Heavey displayed no signs of a driver out of a vee since the Phoenix Park in August last year as he jumped from 6th to 2nd into Colonial, trailing fellow Leastone runner Ray Moore out of the first corner. He then displayed some signs of race rustiness as he was caught out into the hairpin, tripping over a fellow runner in a bid to hold onto second. Even still Heavey maintained third as a top three group broke away. A typical slipstream battle ensued over the following few laps with Moore never being headed. The battle was prematurely brought to an end when Heavey was sent skywards in the braking zone for turn 1, damaging the brake reservoirs and leaving Heavey to hobble back to the pits.

“I clipped Trevor Delaney at the hairpin, 50% me being a little out of practice, 50% Ray and Trevor backing us all up. I had a chat with Trevor in parc ferme and everything is cool. As for what put me out of the race, we entered the braking zone at 100+ mph and then someone decides to change lanes quicker than a Turkish taxi driver while we are all hard on the brakes. You just don’t do that when battling in a group, he had all the time in the world to decide how he was going to line up Ray and waited until I committed to the outside to make his move. But hey, the car isn’t badly damaged, despite a sizeable shunt and it is bang on the pace straight out of the box so that’s a positive. And as well as that, Moore still got us the win!’ said a surprisingly upbeat Heavey.

Paul Heavey will next run the car in the Phoenix Park with some development running carried out in the interim.