Race Report - Irish Vee

Kirkistown 29-3-8

Ken Elliott kicked of his Formula Vee title defence with a solid opening result at Kirkistown last weekend. The 2007 champion survived a spin in the main race to bag 5th place and with it a handful of crucial championship points.
Grey skies met the team on Saturday morning ensuring tricky conditions for the 15 minute qualifying period. A severe lack of wet running for the JH004 has left the team on the backfoot as they are still perfecting a wet set up for the radical chassis and Elliott struggled with the damp conditions. He managed a time good enough for 4th place which would put him on the front row for the qualifying race.

The Northern Irish track dried up somewhat as the cars took to the grid for the qualifying heat and Elliott knew what was needed. He duly delivered a mature race drive which resulted in him taking the victory and more importantly, gifted him 3rd on the grid for the main event.
The heavens opened for the main event, much to the disappointment of the team and both Elliott and Leastone boss placed their faith in a radical, and untried set-up in order to unlock some wet pace from the JH004. Elliott bogged down off the line which resulted in the ensuing field swamping him on the run to turn 1.
All was not lost however as Elliott seemed to be enjoying the new set-up as he quickly began making amends. By lap four he was latched onto the battle for 3rd and 5th place and it didn’t take him long to move himself into the final podium slot. The Clondalkin man got a break shortly after and just when it looked like he was pulling in second place, a rare mistake at the hairpin resulted in a 360 but thanks to a quick recovery, only lost one place.
Being late in the race there was little time for Elliott to stage a second comeback but that didn’t stop him from trying. As the chequered flag flew, Elliott was only a hairs breadth from snatching back 4th.

“Conditions were tough and although it’s far from the result we wanted, we can only try extract positives from the weekend. We’ve been struggling in the wet but we tried something new and I am much happier now.” said Elliott after the 10 (or was it 11, 12 or 9 laps – who knows??) lap encounter.
The team now look forward to Mondello Park on the 27th of April where Ken will be looking to build on this solid result.