Jennifer in action. Photo by Brian Walsh
We catch up with Jennifer Mullan at Bishopscourt Race Track last weekend
After a fairly awful opening weekend to my season it was safe to say I left Kirkistown feeling pretty sorry for myself. There was however a six week gap until the next time out at Bishopscourt, the race I class as my home race having been born just a short distance away. This break was just what we needed and it allowed the team to have the car properly on the money going into round two and it also allowed me plenty time to forget about Kirkistown and focus on the rest of the year.
Mondello Park put on a test day last Wednesday so we decided it was a good idea to do this to get back in the grove again as there is no test day at Bishopscourt, just a 30 minute session before qualifying. The test went better than I could ever have imagined and I headed north for the weekend full of confidence!
With the other half of the FCR Media Racing team gone to Donington Park for the UK Formula Ford Championship, I teamed up with Morgan Dempsey and his MCP team for this weekend. We got all set up on Friday night at a very wet Bishopscourt ready for the 9.00am practice on Saturday morning. It dried up overnight but the back of the circuit remained wet with the front half dry. This made it tricky to set the car up going out but we decided it best to go pretty close to a wet setting just to be safe. The session went pretty well and gave us plenty of areas to work on going into qualifying in the afternoon.
The sun was shining and the track was fully dry for qualifying, Formula Ford numbers were low for the weekend with just seven entered. The good thing about that was that all bar one were older cars like mine so I was going have plenty people to race with. I was very quickly getting to grips with the International layout of the Bishopscourt track that was being run for the first time and put my car fourth on the grid for both of Sunday’s races. I had no idea where I had qualified at the end of the session as there is no live timing at any of the tracks up north so I was just getting other lap times on my pit board. When I came in and Morgan said to me he was almost sure I had qualified fourth, I laughed and said “no I haven’t, stop messing” but sure enough I had, I was delighted.
Jennifer Mullan. Photo by Brian Walsh
A nice early finish on Saturday gave us plenty time to look over video and data to see where I could improve on Sunday and very quickly we discovered I had lost the best part of a second on my quickest lap in qualifying with a small mistake and I was also taking one of the chicanes in the wrong gear so there was easy time to be found in the races. The track was damp on Sunday morning and the Formula Fords lined up behind the two Formula Libre cars on the grid and I was keen to try and at least hold my position at the start and then try to perhaps pick up the Pre-87 class win if I could manage to keep up with Henry Campbell. When the lights went out I got an almighty start and launched it past the whole field apart from the Formula Renault that was on pole and found myself leading a race for the first time ever. I couldn’t quite believe I was leading and just after I had slipped to second place the red flag came out due to Henry being collected by a Formula 3 car that was slow to get away at the start.
The restart went well too and I found myself for a split second between Cian Carey in the Formula Renault and David Nicholl’s Formula Ford. I slotted into second place behind but it wasn’t long before I was down in third. With a really strong wind down the back straight it was tough to keep the chasing two cars in the tow behind and after a few close laps James Graham got past me. I knew I was much quicker than him on the first half of the track and after a lap he made a mistake and went off onto the grass when I was going for the move back past him, promoting me back to third. That left me with just Brendan Duggan to contend with in the mirrors. After a few laps his exhaust broke and he pulled into the pits. I crossed the line in third place overall and first in class, I was delighted but I couldn’t help but feel it was a little overshadowed by the fact that only three cars finished but I had been running in third when the two guys behind me retired so I felt I had earned the place!
Rain was forecast for the afternoon and the organisers did a great job getting through most of the races before it arrived, meaning that our second race of the day was dry, thankfully. If I thought my first two starts earlier were good it was to be nothing compared to my race two start. With the start line fully dry I brought the revs up a bit higher than earlier and when I let the clutch out the car just rocketed off the line. I expected to be swallowed up by the others as I went up the gears but no, I looked in my mirror and saw I had pulled a few car lengths on everyone else going into the first left hand corner. I didn’t panic just as much as I did earlier when I found myself leading and instead this time I said to myself, right let’s get the head down and GO! If only it was that easy! I held it all the way until we came on to the international loop before Sean Lillis came past in his newer Ray, but I still managed to hold second place before a poor run through the first chicane left me a sitting duck near the end of the straight and Nicholl came flying past. I was pretty comfortable in third, defending from Graham for a while and just as I had pulled a bit of a gap on him my car got stuck half way out of third gear when I was going for second gear. I was blessed that I was right at the pit lane entry and I managed to just about drag the car into the pits in the hope that the team could do something to get me back out to avoid a non-finish. Had it been any further away from the pits I wouldn’t have made it back, eventually the guys got it to come out of gear and I got back out a lap down so I just nursed the car around to the flag to take a fifth place points finish and second in class. I was absolutely gutted as I felt I could have comfortably brought home another overall podium with more than three finishers this time but as the saying goes, that’s motor racing and it was nobody’s fault, just one of those things!
It would be wrong to get hung up on the one disappointing thing that happened all weekend when there were so many positives. I lead an overall race for the first time, I got my first overall podium and I scored some good championship points, it will take a lot to top that! Regardless of how many cars were out I still felt I made a massive improvement in my driving and confidence so hopefully there are many more good days to come! There is a long gap now until August before the All Ireland Formula Ford Championship resumes but I have a few things up my sleeve to hopefully keep me busy and I’ll no doubt share them with you as and when they happen! I’m going to stop rambling now as I’m sure your probably getting tired reading this but before I go I must thank Morgan, Jordan, Scott and Sam for looking after me so well all weekend and of course my sponsors goldenpages.ie, www.SayHiWifi.ie & Snap Sync.
See Jennifer in action below
Jennifer Mullan
15th May, 2015
