Race Report - Formula 5

Phoenix Park Races 11/12 August 2007

It was the father and son team of Paul and David Heavey who walked away with Formula 5 class honours at the Phoenix Park last weekend. The Leastone duo enjoyed a good weekend around the Dublin streets and managed to notch up some impressive overall results within the Formula libre class.

Qualifying was held in tricky conditions as a downpour early in the morning left the track wet but drying all the time. This wasn’t helped by an early red flag which prompted Paul Heavey to head back to the pits in order to conserve his wets. Stephen Kershaw had a frightening incident early on which saw his DH01 catch fire after a breather pipe worked loose. This forced him to start from the back of the grid. David Heavey took full advantage of the shortened session and sneaked into 8th place on the 27 car grid with teammate John Downey showing good form in 11th. Formula 5 returnees Kevin Gilllespie and Ronan Healy suffered slight problems during the session which saw them somewhat behind the top two.

Heavey took the lead into the first corner, careful not to get tangled up with any of the bigger cars while Downey had his mirrors full of the bigger machines. This allowed Heavey to open a slight gap before Downey got torpedoed at the start of the 4th, breaking his suspension. This left Heavey with a comfortable gap back to Paul Heavey and championship leader Kershaw, both hampered by their poor qualifying.

Exiting Furry Glen the younger Heavey snapped a chain (‘Sitting on the dummy grid I thought to myself, I don’t remember oiling up this chain’ admitted Heavey afterwards) leaving Heavey senior and Kershaw to battle it out for class honours over the remaining 4 laps. Despite Kershaw inching closer in the final stages, the laps wound down and the no. 56 Elf Finol machine took the class win while taking 8th overall.

Sundays race started dramatically when Downey took the lead with a stylish move down the outside at the first corner, during which David Heavey got tagged from behind and knocked sideways exiting the corner. This dropped him back into the clutches of Paul Heavey, again struggling due to poor qualifying.

The Heaveys swapped places for the opening laps with Kershaw keeping a watching brief behind and Downey eking out a slight advantage at the front. Once the father son battle settled down, David set off in pursuit of the leading O2 machine. The gap closed, and it was obvious that Downey was not comfortable with his car. Just as the Heavey’s arrived on the scene Downey ran wide and spun helplessly across the track, such was the tricky conditions.

Kershaw’s challenge had faded after he got caught behind a more powerful yet slower car in the early stages before a suspension problem forced him onto the sidelines. John Downey managed to restart but overheated a chain in the process and pulled off with a lap to go. The Elf finol cars were in close company for the remainder of the race and the elder Heavey looked set to mount a definitive attack on the final lap when an electrical failure saw him drop back, leaving David to cruise home and take the class win with 8th overall.

The 5’s are back in championship action with a double header at the impressive new Anglesey complex in Wales on the 8/9th of Sept.