I somehow managed to get myself a fully sponsored drive in a Formula Sheane Single Seater for the 2012 season, thanks to the Mondello's 'Become a Racing Driver' competition.

Sheane cars providing the car including fuel/ transport/ running costs/ crash repairs, Mondello Park paying my licence fee's and my entries and unlimited testing fee's (in mondello), and Murray Motorsport provided me with 1200E worth of gear!

So my first drive in one was a couple of weeks ago, I was thrown straight into the deep end though, having never driven a full race spec one before!
Turns out there fairly fast and serious fun to drive, not easy to keep on the track either when your pushing hard!

So I got a small bit of testing in on the saturday morning to scrub in the new tyres and brake pads and then straight into qualifying.
Went suprisingly well, I managed to get onto the pace fairly quick and qualified 6th out of 15 mostly very experienced drivers.

Then into the race on Sunday, which went even better, had a great battle with Anton Savage towards the end of the race ( who started at the back of the grid as he missed qualifying), I managed to hold him off for a few laps, and then he got passed, but I tried copying what he was doing and sat on his hole for a couple of laps, trying to overtake him at every oppurtunity until the finished, he's to smart and experienced for that so was able to hold me off easily!
He's one of the most experienced and aggressive drivers in the series, so following him made me a hell of alot faster, my lap times dropped down fairly quickly once I was behind him. Obviously he came out ontop, but only fractionally, I finished less than a second behind him. So i was delighted about that!
So my first race I finished 5th!Not to bad!

I have been getting a hell of alot of media coverage for this so far. I've got into the Irish Independent Motoring Section, Sunday World and a few local papers and motorsport blogs.
So hopefully by the time I'm looking for sponsorship next year I should have a good base to work with!


Unfortunely I didnt have a gopro for the race! But here's a quick onboard vid of one of my qualifying laps towards the start of the session, not my fastest. Ill upload more later on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yf67VY0l05A

well done twail thats a sweet pize to win. best of luck for the rest of the year

Nice one,
Lucky man

Some achievement. Well done and best of luck Tim.

Well done Timmy, that lap looked very quick, nice bit of correcting being done

Well done Tim, fair play with the qualifying position and a fantastic result! Best of luck with the rest of the season.

When is your next race? Might drop down for a gawk.

Fair play to ya, nice bit of oposite going on there. What motor is in them?

They are very tail happy! That was a fairly tam lap as the go, wasn't pushing to hard as that was only the start of qualifying!



Next time I'm racing in Mondello will be start of June, there's a couple of rounds up north first!



As I said, they are very tail happy, alot more power than Grip!. They've a 1800 K-series. Around 145bhp and fully loaded with a driver and fuel weigh in at 555kgs.

Well done ,let us know when your in mondello again .

That's fair going , some prize to win.
Best of luck with the rest of the season

5th is a brilliant position for your first race, especially after getting stuck behind someone who's more experience of the track and car, you just jump in at the deep end and nearly a podium finish, well done..

I think that competition is class, participating in motorsport should be more accessible to the general public, most young lads would never get a chance to try any sort of racing in Ireland, and infrastructure ain't great compared to other countries, competitions like the one Timmy did are a great way to bring new blood into motor racing.. There is plenty of talent in Ireland but getting funding to race is very prohibitive to most, hopefully more talent comes through similar competitions, I reckon Ireland could easily build an f1 track (even a street one like montecarlo) and host a race if the right people got on board.. Would be great to see Jordan back with two cars and Irish drivers competing in an Irish f1 stage..

Keep up the good work Timmy and best of luck the rest of the season..

Well done!! Great to see someone getting such a great chance, out of interest who won the seat in the integra for the itcc??

Start of June is the next time we'll be in Mondello.




Yeah Im delighted to have gone so well in my first race, hopefully I'll be battling for the podium before to long!
I think there main objective of this competition is to reinject some young and entusiastic drivers into the sport.




It really is a great prize. I come from a background that is has been very involved in motorsports, and I certainly wouldnt have ever been in a position to be able to get into it if it wasnt for this oppurtunity

I was wondering who would win this when i seen it first released , well done Timmy, great to see someone from the forum getting it. nice incar too.....you can drive

Besta luck with the coming session.

Nice result. Best of luck for the rest of season.

Yeah I was wondering who was going to win it too right up until the point that my name was called out!

The onboard video's are a great job, even just watching them myself I can see plenty of places where I'm clearing not going right, and can improve on.

The lap shown there isn't a great example as it was one of the first from qualifying so wasn't going full attack, as the tyres and all were still heating up.



Cheers man!

Fair play Timmy. Can't wait to see how you do next

Thank you please sir.

I'm looking forward to the next race in a couple of weeks. Its up in Bishopscourt, and no one has ever raced there, so esentially we will all be starting off on a fairly level playing field in regards to track knowledge, as no one knows the track! So if ever I'm going to get to or near the podium it will be there!

Although its a non championship round!

Well done Timmy, Looks good fun keeping her on the straights!

My cousin won that... I think after Round 2 he is 4th position! Fully race prepped B18c Integra... great car for ITCC imo!
Serious prize to win infairness but more stuff like this should be happening in Ireland!

Best of luck man, that video looks like some craic!
Fair play to all the people involved too, thats a fantastic prize!

Is that the same Anton Savage whos on today FM?

Thanks man.

And yeah its the same guy, serious driver, very experienced and very aggressive! Aswell as a radio personality!

What a weekends racing in bishopscourt!

Started off on a bad note, mechanical troubles so didnt make it to practice.

Big rush to get the spare car setup for me and get it to scrutiny. All went well, went into qualifying having not driven the track or the car! Managed to qualify 3rd!

First race was great, got to the first corner in 1st, bottled it under the pressure towards the end of the lap, and dropped back a few places, managed to crawl back a couple of places and crossed the line in 2nd!

Second race I was in 2nd for the first 4/5 laps, but bottled it again under pressure with a stupid spin on turn two and dropped back to 5th. Got back up to 3rd for the finish.

Last race was unreal. Myself, Kevin Sheane, Robbie Allen and David Parkes had the race of the day! Serious close racing,Coming down the main straight and into the first corner three abreast! Managed to finished in second!

So to sum it up, three podiums out of the three races on my second weekend as a racing driver!! I thought it couldn't possibly get much better than that.
And then to top it off I was presented over all driver of the weekend by the Bishopscourt officials!! Delighted!!

This is the onboard from race 2.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzZvjhbnvyM

Congrats man, well done!

Fair play to you .
There was some great action down in the first corner yesterday.
Keep up the good racing !

3 abreast in the last race coming down the straight! I was getting squeezed into the wall!!

Well done man. Was up there working on some of the ITCC cars and went over to watch your progress once or twice. Impressive to say the least. Congrats.

Well done on the podiums!!was ragigng i didnt stay for the sheane race!!was menta be the best of the weekend!
that first corner is hairy enough without having anyone beside ya!!!

Yeah the last race was brillieant fun! And that last corner is scary enough when your coming around it at 120mph!!

So had my first proper drive of Kirkstown at the weekend. Unfortunately it didn't go as well as I had planned! I think I had put myself under too much pressure after doing so well in Bishopscourt.

So testing, qualifying and both races have been erased from my memory for ever!

Although there are still some good pictures from the weekend!

congrats man thats a good result without even doin a practise session