4 July 2013

Revived Formula Vee Festival at Mondello

Mondello Park
For the second year running, the Irish Formula Vee festival will take place at Mondello Park this coming weekend (July 6th & 7th) with an innovative and exciting event format and live internet streaming on Mondello.TV, writes Fergus Brennan.

The revival of this event proved very popular last season and the event returns with continued backing from Dunlop Tyres.

A total of eight Formula Vee races will be run over the two days starting with the championship encounters on Saturday. The festival will then kick into action on Sunday, with three heats followed by two semi-finals and the final.

Following qualifying on Saturday morning the grids for the Formula Vee championship races will be decided. The times from qualifying will also be used to determine the line-up for the Festival heats on Sunday with an additional qualifying session on Sunday morning for Festival only competitors. Saturday's twelve race programme will also include the seasonal début of the revived Irish Formula Ford Championship and the two races for the Patch Tyre Equipment Fiesta Championship.

Sunday's very busy sixteen race schedule gets under-way at 10:35 with the first of three Vee Festival heats. The top eighteen drivers from each heat will make it through to the Semi-Finals which will be the first action after the lunch break. The top fourteen from each semi will then make the grid for the fifteen minute final, which will line-up at 16:40. To add to the intrigue a number of the top grid positions for the final will be reversed and that number will be decided by a draw just minutes before the grid is formed.

The event has a number of side attractions which will include a Barbecue on Saturday Night and a charity auction, the proceeds from which will go to the LauraLynn Foundation. There will also be a strong Volkswagen theme with displays by Volkswagen owners clubs including 'Eircooled', and a parade of their vehicles around the circuit at lunch time on Sunday.

To encourage fans of air-cooled cars to attend the festival anyone arriving in such a vehicle will be admitted free of charge, otherwise admission will cost just €10 per car with up to 5 people. All money raised at the gate will join the money raised by the auction and go to the events official charity the LauraLynn Foundation.

For information on the Formula Vee festival see www.mondellopark.ie/vee.