Motorsport: Smith an impressive winner

Mark Smith was an impressive winner in the 100National category in the Irish Karting Championship third round at Kartworld, Watergrasshill.

The young Dublin karter led from the start and was never challenged during the race. On the opening lap, he went clear of a chasing pack that included John Ed McCarthy, Charles McCarthy, Tony Mooney and Brian O'Mahony.

Mid way through the race, Charles McCarthy overtook John Ed McCarthy and the race order remained unchanged to the chequered flag.

Mooney was fourth with Cork karter, Brian O'Mahony fifth - he had to rely on a number of spare engines when his race engines failed to be delivered in time.

There was an exciting finish to the Rotax Max class where David Hilliard held off the strong challenge of Gerard Tohill.

In the other categories, there were race wins for Conor McCabe (Pro-Karts) James Daly (Super Pro-Karts) James McCarthy (Junior Restricted); Gavin Craigie (125 National); and Glen Cole (Cadets) were the other race winners.

Despite rolling his Special on the third and final run, Richard Percy won the second round of the Munster Autocross Championship in Clonakilty.

Percy set a time of one minute and 46.56 seconds during his second run. His closest rival, Richard Percy could only manage 1 minute 47.18 seconds.

It was still good enough for second, edging out Gerard Lucey (Toyota Special) who was the early leader.