County Kildare News

For the first time ever fans of Irelands premier motor racing series, the Dunlop Supercar Championship will be treated to three championship encounters in the one event at Mondello Park this Sunday, 22nd July 2007.

The ever popular saloon series will not only race three times in the one day but will also do so with the biggest grid in its history as seventeen cars take to the track led by championship leader Rod McGovern. McGovern won two races at the last Mondello Supercar outing and currently leads the series by ten points from Johnny Whelan with David O'Brien and John Farrelly the only other drivers still in contention for the title. The series is bolstered this weekend by entries for returning drivers JJ Riordan and Michael Leonard Jnr.

The unusual nature of the race meeting goes further than the Supercar triple header as it also features the first ever Irish sportscar endurance races. Two forty five minute races are scheduled and entry to these races is limited to open cockpit, closed wheel sportscars. The race format allows for driver changes and re-fuelling with a mandatory pit stop of a minimum length. Each cars pit stop duration will be controlled in order to equalise the performance of cars with one driver to those with two, and those which need to re-fuel to those that don't.

Another new aspect of Sunday's event is that it will feature two historic car classes for the first time at Mondello. The Irish historic racing car class has been expanded to include cars built before 1979 and these cars will compete in separate race from the existing pre 1974 cars. The new class not only admits the younger cars but also allows kit cars, modified saloons and modsports of either vintage to compete.

The nine race programme is completed by the traditional Formula Libre double header and gets underway with the first of the endurance races at 11:10 on Sunday morning.