Ireland’s Charlie Eastwood today drove the TF Sport team Aston Martin Vantage AMR to victory in the LMGTE AM class in the world famous 24 Hours of Le Mans motor race, battling for almost all of the marathon event with two other crews and eventually taking the chequered flag just 49 seconds ahead of the Porsche 911 of the Dempsey Proton Racing team. 

Backed up by his co-drivers, Britain’s Jonny Adam and Salim Yoluc of Turkey, the Belfast man, Motorsport Ireland’s Young Racing Driver of the year in 2018, led for most of the race. However, for a large part of the distance, they and their two main rivals were less than fifteen seconds apart, with a large number of safety car periods making the final outcome very unpredictable until the last lap. 

At home, the first Sporting Trial of the new season produced a very close finish, with four drivers ending the twelve sections at Newtownmountkennedy with five penalties each, forcing an extra tie-break section to decide the winner of the MEC Rhodes Cup. Tony Farrell took top place, followed by Morgan Evans, Percy Pennefather and Enda Byrne. 

Below are results from Motorsport Ireland events that took place over the weekend. 

MOTOR ENTHUSIASTS’ CLUB RHODES CUP SPORTING TRIAL AT TITTOUR, NEWTOWNMOUNTKENNEDY, CO WICKLOW: 

1 Tony Farrell (Erskine-Honda) 5 marks, 
2 Morgan Evans (Mog-Honda) 5m, 
3 Percy Pennefather (Erskine-Suzuki) 5m, 
4 Enda Byrne (VW) 5m, 
5 Paul Needham (Erskine-Honda) 6m, 
6 Gordon Graves (Erskine-Suzuki) 8m, 
7 Siobhan McCann (JMcVW) 10m, 
8 Karen Fildes (Erskine Lancia) 10m,
9 Gordon Watkins (Watkins-Yamaha) 11m, 
10 Richard Meeke (BD-Opel) 11m, 
11 Robin Taylor (VW) 13m, 
12 John Bolton (Grasshopper VW) 14m. 
Grade winners: Morgan Evans, Gordon Watkins, Gordon Graves, Alfie Inglis (Erskine Lancia) 17m.