Race Report - Irish Formula Vee

Mondello Park 29-6-8

Ken Elliott turned potential disaster into another strong result at Mondello last weekend. The Clondalkin man made up for a first corner error in the qualifying race with a strong drive to third place in the final. Last weekend saw the debut of Elliotts self built JH004 which he hopes to hire for the remainder of the season which also has the attention of the works team. Mayo born Patrick O’ Dwyer returned to the series after a 3 year break and impressed everyone by keeping his champion team mate honest all weekend.
Somewhat struggling for outright pace all weekend, Elliott was 7th quickest during qualifying while O’ Dwyer qualified on the fringes of the top ten in his return in 11th place. This left the duo 3rd and 7th for what was to be a damp qualifying race.


Elliott made a poor start by his standards and tried to compensate with an optimistic move into turn one. This end in tears as Elliott spun a fellow competitor and got himself severely held up in the process. He rejoined towards the back of the field and began a charge straight away. Pat O’Dwyer benefited from all this carnage to slot into a superb 3rd place, a place that he held for only two laps as a mistake at turn three and the resulting 360’s dropped him to 8th.
Elliott had carved his way up inside the top ten by mid distance and a safety car looked to have gifted him a great opportunity but the closing laps were outstandingly chaotic, even by Vee standards and Elliott was unable to capitalise fully but even so he brought the car home a valuable 4th place. O’Dywer followed suit and brought the second JH004 home in 7th place happy just to survive the final few laps.


O’Dwyer was feeling the effects of his lengthy layoff and resulting race rusitness as he tried to find a way into the top ten. Small errors here aswell as a lack of confidence when overtaking opportunites arose prevented him from progressing as much as he liked but even still he finished an impressive 9th on his race return.
Elliott held off the chasing pack for the final few laps to take a well deserved third place during what was one of his more difficult weekends. Both he and the team look forward to Anglesey next week looking to ascert themselves in a similar way that they did during the away races in 2007 when Elliott to a second and a win to take a commanding lead in the championship. Pat O’Dwyer is sitting out Anglesey as he works on a budget for some of the races later in the year.