Fiat Abarth Championship

Mondello Park 13^th September

By Gary Fox

Liam Denning put the finishing touches to his Championship title with a race to spare after another totally dominant performance at Mondello Park.

Ahead of Sunday’s race it would have taken a mathematically improbability for Denning to lose the Championship to Alastair Kellett.

Denning looked on course for victory from the very first corner when he got away cleanly, leaving the pack trailing in his wake.

The man from Rathfarnham had given himself the best possible opportunity for victory by grabbing pole position in qualifying, narrowly edging out Derek Graham.

Abarth qualifying is among the most keenly contested classes in Irish racing with less than fractions of a second separating the front rows.

As with many meetings this season the second row was an all Kellett affair, Gordon and Alastair taking third and fourth respectively.

Early jostling between the front pack, saw Derek Graham spin off only to rejoin the race immediately, Alastair Kellett also slipped off the pace falling back to fourth spot.

This left Liam Denning to open up a yearning gap back to Gordon Kellett in second place, from Clive Pratt in third.

Derek Graham was a man on a mission after his earlier journey off track, blazing through the field, fighting his way back up. 

This weekends racing was held on the 3.5km International Track.

The trio of Alastair Kellett, Clive Pratt and Noel Greene were bumper to bumper after five laps, all battling hard to snatch the final spot on the podium behind Gordon Kellett and Liam Denning.

Further back in the field, David Pratt, Derek Graham and Paul Copeland were providing the large crowd gathered for the Leinster trophy weekend with some gripping, no holds barred racing.

As the race entered the closing stages Liam Denning continued to drive a flawless race, never putting a wheel out of place, avoiding any drama behind him to open up an unassailable lead from Gordon Kellett in second.

Speaking after the race, newly crowned Abarth Champion Liam Denning was overjoyed with yet another Championship title, he said ‘Its great, we came down hoping to do as good as we could, the idea was to try win it in the first race.

Apart from the accident we’ve been on pole every race and we have been on the podium all year. It’s been the best years racing ever’

Denning has won the Abarth champion three times, along with an Uno and Punto Championship making him the most successful Saloon driver in the country after starting out in Uno’s before moving to Puntos and now Abarths.

The second Abarth race of the day was for the Dunlop Trophy a tense affair with drivers keen to get there name on the trophy and end the season on a high note and with the Championship already sealed it was the chance not to be missed

The Kellett connection was once again involved at the sharp end of the race as they led away a pack including Liam Denning and Clive Pratt.

Denning who was testing a revolutionary new aerodynamic rear fin on his car was battling hard with Clive Pratt in the opening stage.

It was possible to taste the tyre smoke down at turn one, it sailed through the clear summer heat, thrown up into the sky as the drivers gave total commitment in the final competitive race of the season.

Gordon Kellett has proven repeatedly over the course of the season that there are few better drivers to maintain a lead once it has been established and again he produced a master class of defensive driving to hold off the attentions of the younger Kellett.

It was to finish this way, with Gordon Kellett coming home ahead of Alastair to get his name on the trophy for the fifth time

 Further back in the field where the action really got interesting Liam Denning and Clive Pratt were both drawn into the meat of the action as the pack closed right up as the pair contesting third place.

Barry John McHenry, who by his own high standards admitted to not being totally satisfied with how his season went, produced a superb drive to end the season with a superb drive.

Clive Pratt managed to seal the final podium spot from Liam Denning who in turn led from Derek Graham in fifth spot.