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WATERFORD RACEWAY ROUND 2

The Pike 26 April 2025

After a short interruption to the season, Waterford Raceway was back in business for the first of its planned two-day meetings at the end of April. For the Saturday afternoon/evening event the pits for a while looked very quiet, but the day was saved by a last minute influx through the gate, notably the impressive convoy from Wexford. The total of 37 cars was still well down on the numbers the track should be getting, but ended up producing some first rate racing. A couple of classes only had two cars, but those classes saw the closest battles imaginable! It helped that, after a very wet Friday night, the sun shone all day on Saturday and conditions were perfect, with the sea mist staying where it belonged, at sea!

The practice sessions kicked off on schedule, bang on 3 pm, and three rounds of racing, with a short tea break, were all finished by 6. Racing kicked off with a combined grid for CLASS 2 and LADIES, who should also have been joined by the lone STOCKS entry, but Liam Kiersey’s Mazda unfortunately expired in practice. Conor Fitzgerald was joined in Class 2 by former Pike Junior, and now Drifting ace Davan Leahy, and they enjoyed a close battle all day with Conor taking the first race, Davan winning the second, by a bumper, and Conor taking the final. The Ladies’ class was the usual duel between Katie Egan, now in a 1400 Honda-powered Starlet, and Chelsea Eager, giving her eye-catching new 1400 Micra its Pike debut. Katie won the first heat and then just snatched the lead from Chelsea in the closing stages of the second. In the final their side-by-side battle unfortunately caught the equally close Class 2s in the wrong place on the last lap and ran out of room, with a collision sending Katie up the infield as Chelsea took the flag. Overall Conor beat Davan in Class 2 and Katie took the Ladies’ win over Chelsea.

CLASS 3 was next up, with a seven car grid. Leading away was PJ Nolan’s new Fiat-powered Starlet, going very well until he came to a halt on the back straight, having blown up both engine and gearbox. A few laps later the other Starlet-Fiat of Darragh Healy, already struggling with no second gear, clouted the wall hard to bring out the reds, at which point Sean Coss’ Starlet-Honda was ahead of the matching Starlet-Hondas of Sean and Andy Foley, David Browne’s Micra and Danny Coss’ Toyota-powered Starlet. For the second race PJ and Darragh were both missing but Co Meath driver Danny Coss was flying from the front to take his first Pike win, with Sean Foley in the newer of his two Starlets second, beating Sean Coss and Andy Foley in the older of the green Starlets. In the final David Browne and Danny Coss led away, but Danny dropped out when his engine cut out. Andy Foley burst through and ended up with a big lead, but as he was only racing the extra class for a bit of crack, he slowed up on the last lap to let the others catch up, and in the last corner sort-out Sean Foley leapfrogged Sean Coss to finish alongside Andy. In the overall result though Sean Coss took the win from Andy and Sean Foley.

The JUNIORS had their smallest grid for a long time, with five entries, but the racing didn’t suffer. The first heat went to Jamie Eager, but it took him until the last couple of laps to find a way past Wexford boy Jack Nolan, with Ben Fitzgerald just beating Jack and Eoin Robinson for second. The order was then reversed for much of the second race, with Eoin leading the way, but eventually Jack got past and held off Jamie to the end. The final again saw Eoin with the early lead, but this time he held on all the way, to take a very close win over Jamie, Jack and Ben. A newcomer to the Pike, after a couple of seasons in the novices class at Rosegreen, was Danny Harney, but his car was a little off song all day.

The ROOKIE JUNIORS fielded seven cars, with the first win going to James Leahy, who’d run wider and wider with each lap until he finally went grass cutting on the last corner, but still took the flag first, with Keelan Gleeson continuing to improve as he held off Cayden Leahy and Tom Robinson for second. Next time out another of the newer starters from last year, Sean D’Arcy, took a very impressive first win after leading all the way, chased by Ruby McCarthy and Tom Robinson. Usual front runner Anna Fitzgerald found herself well down in the day’s points after a car problem in the first heat, but that put her at the front of the grid for the final, where she led all the way under great pressure from Cayden Leahy, with Sean D’Arcy making it a three way battle by the end. Ruby McCarthy beat James Leahy, Tom Robinson and Keelan Gleeson in the other places. Sean D’Arcy came out a well deserved overall winner from Ruby, with the Leahy brothers sharing third.

The most spectacular grouping was a five-car field of CLASS 4s, joined by the CLASS 6 of local man Tom Hill – so local that he can drive his Nissan Turbo-powered 205 straight off his drive though the gates of the track! While indulging in more and more extreme power slides off the top bend, Tom carved past the battling Class 4s to win the first heat, while Craig Kinsella beat Andy Foley and Kieran Cooney in the battle of the Wexford Starlet-Hondas. Raymond D’Arcy, giving the black #368 Civic an outing, and Dylan Eager’s new 1400 Micra led the second heat away while the Wexford boys settled into their usual spectacular scrap. Eventually Tom Hill powered past them all, but none of the Class 4s could catch Dylan Eager, as Craig again narrowly beat Andy and Kieran. For the final Tom was given an extra half lap handicap, while Raymond was given a head start over the other Class 4s. Raymond held onto the lead for half the race until Dylan Eager got past to take another win, while Craig Kinsella just held off Tom, who’d slowed himself up with a few extra-sideways moments. Dylan took the overall Class 4 win over Kieran and Craig.

The last group to take to the track were a seven-car field of CLASS 1 Micras. Killian Swayne was back in the standard class after yet more problems with his Class 4 Micra and he passed early leaders Paddy Fitzgerald and Cillian Rooney to take the first win, with Callum Swayne eventually following his father home second after finding a way past Cillian Rooney. Behind these, Jack Roche beat Aoibhe Fitzgerald after a race long battle. The second heat saw a superb performance by Aoibhe, who soon passed Paddy for the lead, round the outside, but very soon had her mirrors filled by Callum and Killian Swayne, one each side. Aoibhe soaked up all the pressure but with two laps to go she couldn’t stop Killian finally edging ahead on the outside. Killian took another win, with Callum just beating Aoibhe, who held off Jack Roche for third, while Conor Hoey, first time out of Juniors, had a good run to beat Cillian Rooney and Paddy Fitz. The final was again led away by Paddy, but Jack Roche soon took over, chased by Cillian Rooney, as Aoibhe again did a great job of fending off the two Swaynes for third. Eventually it went wrong and Aoibhe found herself spun into the infield bank. The reds came out with Jack still ahead of Cillian as Killian, Callum and Conor Hoey took the next places. Overall Killian Swayne, whose Clonpriest Breakers business happened to be the day’s title sponsor, took the win with Callum and Jack tied for second and Cillian Rooney completing the podium.

An excellent first half of the weekend then, with another full day’s racing promised despite several drivers having to make apologies as they left, due to other commitments on Sunday.