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Ross Curnow showed his class once again with two
impressive drives at the Mondello Park circuit near Dublin on the
weekend of 22nd/23rd April.
Official testing on the Friday saw Curnow top the
leader’s board, comfortably ahead of the rest of the field.
Settings didn’t appear to translate to Saturday qualifying,
however, where he finished 2nd in the first session and
4th in the second. ‘We haven’t found the pace that we
had yesterday but we’ve got a couple of good grid slots which
should see us well positioned for the races tomorrow’, said Ross
afterwards.
The fine weather enjoyed so far by competitors and
spectators alike continued into Sunday which dawned sunny and
bright again. A good start from the front row in Race 1 enabled
Ross to hold second position into the first corner and maintain
that behind local boy Niall Breen. An incident on Lap 3 involving
Sato, Holmes and Arundel then brought out the safety car which
bunched the field up until the wreckage had been cleared. Once the
safety car went in, Ross came under pressure from Meadows but held
him off well until Meadows became involved in a battle of his own
with Hankey behind and the two of them slipped back. Ross was
continuing to hold onto 2nd place, 1.5 sec off Breen,
when the race finished under the 30 minute time rule because of
the safety car deployment. Ross was also credited with a fastest
lap of 1 min 40.688 sec - a new lap record.
Race 2 provided more exciting action for spectators
and TV viewers and Ross managed to stay clear of trouble with a
consistent drive. He got a clean start and held his 4th
position into the first corner and for the next 5 laps. A mistake
from Hankey on Lap 6 put Ross up the 3rd but also
brought out the safety car again. After the restart, Ross was
challenged by Meadows again but held him off to finish 3rd,
just 2.8 secs off the leader.
After the podium presentation, a delighted Curnow
said: ‘We needed to consolidate here and we came for points. A 2nd
and a 3rd has done us well and we’re very pleased.’
The next two races will be at Oulton Park on the
weekend of 13th/14th May with testing on Friday 12th. |
