Formula BOSS - Mondello Park - 6th July - with Róisín Sweeney

Photos by Ken Keegan

My first weekend in single seaters began with Friday testing on the international circuit at Mondello. After arriving at the track in the morning, the first thing to do was make sure I was fitted correctly into the car before hitting the track. After quite a bit of added cushioning I was comfortable in the car and ready to hit the track for my first test session of the day! I had driven the Selco Leastone 1000 once before, around a year ago in Kirkistown, so the first session or two were mainly focused on getting a feel back for the car. Mondello is quite a tight and technical track compared to the shorter, faster layout in Kirkistown, so driving it in the Leastone was quite a different experience to what I had previously!

After lunch, with more laps under my belt and having gone through my onboard footage with Paul and Mark, I was able to begin to push myself in the car, and start to get braver and faster. I ended the last session on Friday happy with my progress and very excited for the racing to come on Sunday. Sunday began with qualifying in the morning, with 2 races following after lunch. I made it through qualifying happy with the car and continued to build on what was learned on Friday.

Race 1 began with a shower of rain while sitting in the pits waiting to get out on track - which didn’t make things easy for my first race in single seaters, especially having never done a standing start before! The decision was made to stay on slick tyres with confidence that the shower would blow over, and it did. I struggled in the early stages of this race, with a lot of unknowns being thrown into the mix, but managed to keep the car in one piece and on the road to finish Race 1 with a P2 in class.

Race 2 felt more put together for me, I was still a little slow off the line but found a rhythm once I got going, and was able to battle with another car for a lap or two before making a pass which was great fun! I was very happy to have another race finish under my belt to round off the weekend, it was a great feeling to bring it all to a close.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my first race meeting in the Formula BOSS class. The car was so much fun to drive, having a lot more power behind me than usual took some getting used to but the car performed and handled so well, it was a pleasure to drive all weekend. Before the weekend, I had found some photos of me sitting in a Formula BOSS car as I was just getting started in karting, so to have actually taken part in a race on that same grid now feels like a huge achievement for me. I can’t praise those at Leastone Racing enough, and I am so thankful for the opportunity.

All Photos by Ken Keegan