For the third weekend in a row, Ashbourne driver Peter Dempsey tasted victory in North America on Sunday, adding a win at Mosport International Raceway in Ontario, Canada to his previous Star Mazda series successes at Trois Rivieres, also in Canada, and Road America, Wisconsin.
Dempsey, a former Motorsport Ireland Young Driver of the Year, took the lead early in the race and stayed there to the finish to leave himself in a strong position to continue his late challenge for the championship title, heading the points table on dropped scores. The next two rounds are in New Jersey in three weeks' time.
MEC SPRINT
Although suspension problems on his Delta left him down in seventh place on the opening day of the MEC Sprint Weekend at the Cullenmore Bends, near Ashford, Co Wicklow, with only one timed run in the wet, his seventh win of the season the following day clinched a second successive Magnus Technology National Hillclimb/Sprint title for Paul O'Connell with two rounds still to come. The Limerickman had to take a rear suspension arm away to be welded when it broke on his practice run, and by the time he returned, the rains had come. Brendan Keane scored his first win, ahead of championship contender Simon McKinley, Escort mounted this time, with series sponsor Darryl Ramsay third. Things stayed dry on Sunday, and O'Connell led all the way, going on to win by more than a second. McKinley held runner up position for three runs, but Ramsay edged ahead on the final two attempts to equal his best result this year, with Saturday's winner fourth this time.