News Archive » Mondello Park Race Report

Sunday 9th May 2004

The Scuderia Ecosse team put in a strong showing at Mondello Park in Ireland this weekend but ultimately was disappointed to come away without a victory. Saturday’s race produced a podium finish for the Tim Mullen/Chris Niarchos car in spite of chaotic circumstances. Andrew Kirkaldy and Nathan Kinch then took a podium spot on Sunday after another tough race.

“It’s good to take two podium positions but we’re here to win”, Team Principal Stewart Roden commented. “Today’s race showed that, under normal conditions, we can’t win with a 25 second penalty. It was interesting to see (Jonathan) Cocker lapping with the same times as Nathan (Kinch) when Nathan is classed as a ‘B’ and Cocker a ‘C’. I know the organisers have said that the driver classifications are open to debate so we’re hoping the classifications will be revisited again.”

The team had a tense morning on Saturday when the sound of the Ferrari V8 in the Kirkaldy/Kinch car was deemed too loud! Fortunately everything was put right by the afternoon just in time for qualifying to get underway. The two qualifying sessions on Saturday produced solid grid positions for the two Scuderia Ecosse cars. Tim Mullen and Chris Niarchos qualified the 360 GT in third and fourth positions respectively. Nathan Kinch put the 360 GTC onto the third spot of the grid for race one whilst his team-mate, Andrew Kirkaldy, went two better and took pole position for Sunday’s race. The first British GT pole position for Scuderia Ecosse!

Saturday afternoon’s race was chaotic. Both cars got away well at the start and ran in the top five during the first stint. Nathan Kinch handed the 360 GTC over to Andrew Kirkaldy from second position and Tim Mullen took over from Chris Niarchos, who brought the 360 GT in from an excellent fourth place. After the pit stops an on-track accident caused the Safety Car to be despatched for the second time in the race. It had been out earlier as a stranded car was removed from the start/finish straight. This time though the Safety Car outing caused a great deal of confusion. At some points on the track the marshals were showing Safety Car signs but at others they were showing green flags!

Tim Mullen explains, “The debacle with the Safety Car definitely cost us second place. I saw the Safety Car flags so I eased off but there were people trying to race me. One minute I was right behind Tim Sugden (the eventual winner), then I was 30 seconds behind! Overall though it was a great to get the podium spot after the weekend we had at Donington and I was pleased I was able to hold off Andrew (Kirkaldy) in the closing laps!”
His team-mate, Chris Niarchos, put in a professional drive in the first stint of the race, handing the car over to Tim Mullen in fourth position. “Tim did a great job today. He really turned it on when the pressure was on and did a superb job of keeping ahead of Andrew behind him. I’m delighted that it’s only race three and we have our first podium finish of the year.”

Sunday’s race was again run in dry conditions. Both Andrew Kirkaldy and Tim Mullen had good starts and held onto first and third positions respectively. To begin with Andrew managed to pull away from the Porsche of Tim Sugden then began to suffer from understeer into the left-hand corners. A crowd-thrilling battle saw him hold off Sugden until just before the pit stop and he handed the car over to Nathan Kinch in second place.

“It all came down to tyre choice and penalties today”, said Andrew Kirkaldy. “I had a lot of understeer going into the left-handers, which meant Tim (Sugden) was eventually able to slip by me. It was good to have some close racing but once we’ve both been through the pit-stop there’s no way we can come out on top when we have an extra 25 seconds and our closest competition only has ten.”

Nathan Kinch took the wheel and started the climb back up the field, ultimately bringing the Ferrari home in an excellent third place. “We’ve had a pretty hectic weekend,” said Nathan. “The car ran well today and I had a good stint and was able to make up positions so I was pleased about that. We’re in it to win it though so I’m hoping for a better result at Snetterton.”

In the sister car, Tim Mullen drove a strong race and handed over to Chris Niarchos in third position. Unfortunately during the pit stop the engine wasn’t switched off so Chris had to come back in for a stop-go penalty. Without this the car would have finished in second position so the eventual fifth place finish was disappointing for the team.

Overall, the team is pleased to leave Ireland with two solid podium finishes but will be back wanting better results in Snetterton.

ENDS

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