Winter Testing

Mondello Park 18-11-6

Drivers: Paul Heavey, Mark Read Cars: Chassis DH0706, DH0806

Mark Read made his single seater debut at Mondello Park in the 2nd of Leastone’s winter tests. The 16-year old Karting graduate took command of Paul Heavey’s 2006 machine while the team boss focused on addressing a clutch problem on son David’s car. Read spent the test acquainting himself with the gears while getting use to driving something that is 3-4 times heavier than what he is use to.
The local teenager built himself up to using all 11,000 rpm at his disposal and quickly got to grips with sequential ‘box. He slowly gathered speed but times were of little concern as he was required just to familiarise himself with the new surroundings before he undertook a more intensive test at Kirkistown the following week.
Paul Heavey completed a handful of laps in the number 55 car as the clutch problem was still apparent, a legacy of a chain breaking at the final round in Kirkistown. He retired to the pit wall where he observed his new recruit in action. “Mark is going about his transition to cars in exactly the right way. He’s slowly gathering pace rather than trying to drive flat out and losing track time due to offs. He is taking his time in learning the way everything works and should be fully up to speed for the beginning of the new season.”
Read was enthused by his first outing: “The main difference is obviously getting use to the gears but the sequential gearbox makes that easy. The clutch takes a bit of getting use to but once on track, it’s no problem. I had fun today but I’m looking forward to getting down to serious business and making both myself and the car competitive for my debut on April 22nd.”