Race Report-Irish Vee

Mondello Park 8-4-7

The team enjoyed a good weekend at their local track as Ken Elliott followed his solid opening performance at Kirkistown the previous week with a spectacular run to second at Mondello Park last weekend. With a mature drive in the qualifier that netted the JH004’s first win and even more measured drive in the final, Elliott strengthened his championship bid as he moves into second at this early stage.

Qualifying was a close affair with most positions being decided on hundredths of a second, showing the competitive nature of this years championship. Elliott was struggling with some slight handling imbalances for the session but he put in a time good for the 3rd row overall which would give him 3rd place for the qualifier.

The Blue Leastone held station on the opening lap but a slight mistake at Dunlop dropped him to 5th and put him under pressure while the leader made good their escape. Luckily the lead pack were fighting hard for track position (and all important grid position for the final) so once Elliott got his head together he quickly reeled them in. Once on top of the lead battle, he moved up to 4th and he duly capitalised on a mistake from the group ahead to vault himself up to second.

Elliott was dealt some luck at Dunlop as oil had been dropped by one of the slower runners which caught the leader out and this gifted Elliott a clear track ahead of him. The safety car was deployed which ensured Elliott was kept busy for the remaining 4 laps, he duly kept his cool and brought the no. 12 Leastone home for it and his first win of the season.

This gave Elliott an important 3rd place grid slot for the final. Another solid start saw him hold station for the opening laps but unfortunately it did not look like Elliott had the raw pace for the win. The lead two got a slight break while Elliot turned his focus to his mirrors and defended his podium position. He did however get a sniff of a chance when the leaders made slight errors but could never quite manage to find a way by.

The majority of the race was unusually processional but when oil went down in the latter stages, all hell broke loose. The leader spun exiting turn 3 with 3 laps to go, promoting Elliott to second but it was not plain sailing as he was almost caught out by the treacherous conditions. Despite a slight scare he brought the car home for his second podium finish of the day.

“This is a great result for us. Every time I get in the car we’re improving it and we’ve got to continue the hard work until we get that win. At the moment though, it’s important to keep banging in the results” said Elliott. The Vee’s are back in action in Kirkistown on the 28th of April where Elliott will hopefully go one step further.