Kirkistown - 27th August
The Leastone team suffered a frustrating weekend at Kirkistown last weekend, 27th of August. While Kevin Cahill came away with a brace of class top 5’s, team mate Mark Reade came away empty handed through a number of circumstances outside his control. Qualifying went well, with Reade classified 6th overall and 3rd in class, with Kevin also lining up 3rd in class.
That was about as good as it got for Mark, as he was side swiped a few hundred metres from the start, cracking a rocker cover and forcing him to retire on the spot. The only solace was that he shut the engine off immediately, saving it from damage which meant he could at least start the main event later in the day. Kevin was embroiled in a battle for the podium in the Finol Star of Tomorrow class in the early stages of the race but as the race wore on, he began to lose touch with the lead group. He continued to put in solid laps for the remainder of the race, coming home 5th in class.
The team fitted a new rocker cover to Mark’s car for the main race and he made a decent start when the lights went out. This time he made it significantly further than his earlier start but became tangled with a fellow competitor in the typical first corner fracas. Luckily he did not suffer any damage and set about making up for the lost time. Kevin had a more sedate start but picked his way through the carnage and picked up where he left of earlier, battling hard with his fellow Finol Stars of Tomorrow.
Further up the field, Reade was enjoying decent pace but had lost too much time in the first corner melee and could do no better than 8th overall. Kevin continued to battle hard in a typical Kirkistown slipstreaming battle, bagging another 5th in class when the chequered flag flew.
To add insult to injury, the officials deemed Mark to be at fault for the first corner shmozzle and disqualified him from the results. The seemingly inconsistent officialling added further frustration, with Reade having seen no further action in the earlier incident, in which he was clearly the innocent party.
The team return to base, preparing for the upcoming Leinster Trophy event at Mondello Park. Mark will vacate his JH004 Formula Vee to step up to the Leastone 1000 for the Leinster Trophy itself. He makes way for teenager Jordan Daly, who will make his debut at Mondello on the 18th of September. Kevin is out of the running for the Finol Star of Tomorrow but looks to have a strong ending to his great rookie season.
