ITCC Round 1 - Mondello

Round 1 of the Irish Touring Car Championship took part recently at Mondello Park

On pole was the former J's Racing CRX, now run by Tuning Factory

Second on the grid was Martin Tracey in the Westward Engineering RS500 Sierra Cosworth

Third was Tomas O'Rourkes Astra

and fourth was Brian Sextons Urban Per4mance Honda Integra

Onto the race and a storming start from O'Rourke saw him jump into the lead...

...chased down by the pack

But it didnt take long for Martin Tracey to take the lead and a sizeable one at that, he was soon lapping the field

but with a few tight battles going on midfield

and more than 1 case of doorhandling going on!

But Tracey was not to be caught and victory was his!

Round 2 is at Kirkistown on April 24th

ITCC

A new direction for me in 2010 is the newly formed Irish Touring Car Championship
This new series has developed out of both Irish Time Attack and the need to have a decent Saloon car series in Ireland.

The class is open to any make and model of saloon or hatch back car. The openness of the rules means the first race will boast a grid consisting of BMW, Peugeot, Mazda, Honda, MINI, Volkswagen, Mitsubishi, Subaru, Ford, Renault and other well known marques.

I am now the official photographer for this series so regular coverage will be found here

The B-Racing K20 Civic doing some testing, with a best lap for now of 1.02, expect more from this car

Round 1 is at Mondello Park, this weekend - April 4th