Photo courtesy of Michael Chester

Ireland’s longest motor race of the year ended in bizarre fashion at Mondello Park yesterday, with poor visibility due to fog a major factor in the organisers stopping the race just before the halfway mark. Originally scheduled for six hours, the Fiesta Endurance race was red flagged just short of three hours, with the Murray Motorsport team of Hugh Grennan, Dave Maguire, Rod McGovern and John Farrelly being declared the provisional winners.

Shortly before the stoppage, another Murray team car in the hands of Eoin and Niall Murray, John Denning and Michael Devaney was in the lead, but Denning, who was driving at the time, spun off on oil dropped by another car whose engine blew up, and was hit from behind by a different car and forced to retire with his Fiesta too badly damaged to continue. Yet another Murray car finished second, eleven seconds behind the winners, with LOH Motorsport taking third place ahead of Blackchurch Ford. The first seven cars all completed 128 laps during the curtailed race.