Unfinished business for 12-year-old Cork karter Daniel Kelleher

Cork karter Daniel Kelleher

Motorsport

The world’s best karting talents, and perhaps some that will be the future generation of Formula 1, will race at Le Mans this weekend and next in the IAME Warrior Finals (IWF22). 

This weekend the X30 Mini and X30 Masters take centre stage and for 12-year-old Cork karter Daniel Kelleher, the event is unfinished business. In last year’s final he led all through until the penultimate corner when he appeared to be bumped and was denied the top step of the podium by fractions of a second. 

Last August, he was crowned the IAME Euro Series X30 Mini champion in Genk, Belgium, winning the four round series by a comfortable margin of 17 points. In free practice this week, the Mogeely karter, racing under the Fusion Motorsport banner, was in the top three. 

He is one of an 11-strong Motorsport Ireland entry in the category that also include Ballymakeery’s Keith Grant, Naas karter Jack McLaughlin and Dubliner Jack Gilsenan, all initially aiming to make the final grid of 36 from the 91entries. 

Meanwhile, Glanmire’s Gary Edwards, who performed well in free practice and Dubliner Richie Faulkner race in the X30 Masters. Heats take place today (Friday) and tomorrow with the Pre-Final and Finals on Sunday.

Elsewhere, Cavan co-driver James Fulton will replace Paul Nagle as Craig Breen’s co-driver with the M-Sport Ford World Rally Team. M-Sport have opted to put the 30 year old Bailieborough man in the seat on Rally Japan, the final round of this year’s WRC. They claim it will ease the pressure of taking on Rallye Monte Carlo for the first time, when the 2023 WRC gets underway in January. 

Nagle, who will compete with Breen for the final time on next week’s Rally Spain, will be on hand in Japan to support Fulton and ensure a seamless transition. Fulton has competed in a number of WRC events this year as co-driver with Josh McErlean in the WRC2 Championship. 

“I am delighted, it’s something I’ve been aiming towards (to get to the top level) for a while. I’ve been working with Craig (Breen) for quite a while now and I have done a couple of tests in the Puma so I am really looking forward to developing the relationship with him and the car as well as with the team. I am looking forward to getting stuck into it and doing the best possible job.” 

A new season of the Motorsport Ireland National Navigation Championship gets underway this Saturday night with the Inchigeelagh based Cork Startrek Navigation Trial. Reigning national champions Shane Dalton/Ryan Treanor have two local crews intent on denying them a strong title defence. The Mallow/Drinagh combination of Derek Butler/Denis O’Donovan, who won the national series a few years ago and the Mogeely/Ballincollig pair James Fitzgerald/Ken Carmody will also have designs on a victory, the latter duo won this event the last time out. First car away for the 80-mile route is at 10.45pm.