Welsh visitor Hywel Lloyd showed all the local drivers the way when he splashed his way to a convincing victory in Ireland’s most prestigious motor race, the Leinster Trophy, held at Mondello Park yesterday in very wet going.
Three of the trophy’s previous winners have gone on to win the Formula 1 World Championship, Mike Hawthorn, Ayrton Senna and Mika Hakkinen.
Lloyd, from Corwyn in North Wales, made it a very successful first trip to the County Kildare circuit with his Formula 3 Dallara, qualifying on pole position for the feature race after dominating Saturday’s Boss Ireland Formula Libre race where he led Jonathan Fildes home by more than 20 seconds in dry conditions.
Yesterday, he grabbed an immediate lead at the start, pulling well clear of the opposition before easing off to beat runner up Paul Dagg by just two seconds at the chequered flag, with Cian Carey and former winner Barry Rabbitt some distance behind in third and fourth places.
Dubliner Dan Polley clinched the Formula Vee Championship in style by winning both of his races, while other winners during the weekend included Andy O’Brien, who took the Tool Dynamics Supercar title.
Former double title holders Declan and Brian Boyle scored a 57 second win in the penultimate round of this year’s Triton Showers National Rally Championship, followed by newly crowned champions Roy White and James O’Brien, in a Ford Fiesta clean sweep of the top five places in the Clare Oak Wood Hotel Stages Rally.
