This Sunday (18th July 2010) at Mondello will be a day of firsts as the new Irish Touring Car Championship (ITCC) has its first ever double header and the Ginetta Junior Ireland series has its inaugural race. The ten race programme will be run by the Carlow Car Club and it also features Formula Vee, Global Lights, Historic Racing Cars and Formula Libre.
The ITCC has been the sensation of the Irish Motor Racing Scene this season as it has steadily grown in popularity. The season got off to an excellent start in April with eighteen cars taking the start and three events later it is heading towards a full grid with thirty cars expected for Sunday's pair of races. The championship has proved popular with spectators as well as competitors with full grandstands greeting every ITCC race.
Ginetta Junior Ireland supported by Michelin is a new championship which will see fourteen to seventeen year olds competing in Irish circuit racing for the first time. This weekends championship opener is sponsored by 'The Grid' and will see ten cars compete over two races. Many of the drivers have graduated from the Jondol Junior Rallycross championship which previously was the only racing opportunity for these youngsters. The championship is a proven winner having run in the UK for a number of years and now looks likely to be extremely successful in Ireland too.
Of the remaining classes, Formula Vee and Global Lights will both race twice while the Historics and Formula Libre will have a single race each. The two Formula Vee encounters will be a qualifying race and a final, making up a single championship round while the Global Lights sportscars will have a pair of points scoring races. The Historics will also count their single race towards their championship points while the Libre event will be non-championship.
Sunday's event gets under way with the first race for Global lights race at 11:40 followed by the Vee qualifier and the first races for the ITCC and Ginetta Juniors. The remaining six races will take place from 14:15 after a lunch break.
Regular Adult admission for Sundays races is €15.00 with children under 16 admitted free. Two special offers on admission prices are also available. Individual admission can cost just €10.00 with a voucher printed from the special offers page of the Mondello Park web site, see www.mondellopark.ie/specials whilst groups of spectators arriving together can gain admission for the bargain price of just €20.00 per car and up to five passengers.