Northern Ireland Sprint weekend – August 5th and 6th 2023
The British Sprint Championship travelled to Kirkistown circuit just south of Belfast for two day’s sprinting hosted by the fabulous 500 Motor Club of Ireland. This is one of my favourite weekends of the year as the journey is an adventure and the people are so welcoming and friendly.
Having arrived on Friday afternoon we were swiftly unloaded and scrutineered in our pit garages. Rain was forecast for much of the weekend and during the night the heavens opened flooding some part of the track with standing water. It continued to rain for practice on Saturday morning but gradually dried up during the morning and was dry for the rest of the day which improved track conditions. A few car issues kept me occupied for much of the time between runs but I managed to finish 5th and 4th in the runoffs for the day which was as good as I could have hoped for.
Sunday’s event started at midday and gave me the morning to remedy a few issues from the previous day. I needed a piece of tubing and a friendly local fellow competitor who recognised myself and the car went home and sacrificed a part from his vacuum cleaner for the cause. I did tell you that the locals are friendly and welcoming! Practice was dry but then we had torrential downpours on a regular basis which made the track tricky. The day ended with two 6th places in the days runoffs which moved me up to a pleasing 4th place in the championship.
The next rounds of the championship are at Snetterton on 26th / 27th August.
