O-Hara feeling confident at season mid-point

Current Dunlop Motorsport Ireland Young Racing Driver of the Year Kevin O'Hara made the trip to Kirkistown for the latest round of the Northern Ireland Formula Ford Championship.

Having just returned from the European Selection event for the FIA Excellence Academy held in Austria, O'Hara was keen to put the misfortune of the previous event in Mondello Park very much behind him.

Testing at the Newtownards venue started his weekend on a very positive note as he was fastest all day in the Irish Sports Council supported Van Dieman, despite suffering some teething problems with the car.

Saturday morning's qualifying session proved that O'Hara was going to be the man to beat this weekend grabbing pole position from early in the session ahead of nearest rivals Ivor McCullough and Jonny McMullan.

Kevin's strong run was to be compromised as a clutch issue hampered his start and left him with a ten second penalty for being out of position at the start. However O'Hara didn't loose his focus and drove a superb race with McCullough for the race lead and Formula Ford rookie Niall Murray in the closing stages of the race for second. Crossing the finish line Kevin proved his experience to remain in second position.

Speaking after the race, Kevin highlighted the positives from the weekend, "despite the penalty we received at the start, there is plenty of positives to take from this weekend. Fastest in testing, followed by pole position and the fastest lap of the race put us in a very strong position for the remainder of the season. Once again a special mention to my sponsors, Motorsport Ireland, The Irish Sports Council, Dunlop, KCMG and NoH2O who have been a massive help over the last few weeks. As usual Bernard Dolan did a superb job on the car and I'm really looking forward to the next event."