The long winter break was finally over for the Airportcars.ie Formula Sheane drivers as they headed to Mondello Park for the first two rounds of the 2026 season.
The sun was out along with new colour schemes and also a new female driver, the first in Formula Sheane for many years. Mondello Park have now taken over the series and it is led by Leo Nulty who has a big promotional push planned with lots of new interest already in the class by several newcomers. It would be great to see it grow back to a large field once again and keep the late David Sheane’s memory and philosophy alive by having an affordable racing class for drivers.
While Carlow man, and reigning champion Kearney was the hot favourite for the win, it was anyone’s for the other two places on the podiums. Qualifying backed the bookies odds as Kearney took pole position by a massive 1.9 seconds from Garrett McKenna and Sean Kiernan. With showers floating around and causing some minor headaches for drivers and teams in the morning thankfully they stayed away come race time. As the lights went out for race one, Kearney took the lead from the off and led the field into turn one. His fellow Carlow man Mike Dermody had to start from the back of the grid after problems in qualifying, but his blood was up and drove superbly in the opening laps to cut through the field all the way to second place. He settled into a race long battle with Sean Kiernan, Garret McKenna and Tom Foley.
The rookie to the class Roisin Sweeney was showing no signs of first day nerves and her previous Global Light racing experience was paying off as she was in touch with the group battle for second. Giving that she had no testing prior to the weekend and her first taste of formula racing was in qualifying, it was a brilliant display. By mid race she had got up to fourth, setting very fast times just a half a second off leader Kearney. A spin at the final corner dropped her right back but the Naas lady had made her point. Kearney did what he does best and puts in quick lap after quick lap and built his lead and was never in trouble. Behind him though, McKenna and Foley had gapped Kiernan enough to duke it out in the final laps for the last two podium spots. Dermody, who had got up to second, couldn’t hold on to his early momentum and dropped back to fifth. McKenna put in a quick couple of laps at the end to secure second from Foley. It was Kearney’s race however and to show how hard he drove, he set a new lap record with a 56.636 second lap.
For race two, it was again Kearney who led into turn one from McKenna who locked up his inside front and was close to colliding with Kearney but he stopped just in time and also held on to his place. Sean Kiernan made a better start and got up to third hounding McKenna in the early laps but could not find a way by. Mike Dermody again made a good start and was up to fifth early on and behind him Roisin Sweeney and Kevin Igoe were having a great battle. Foley this time could not match the pace of those in front but still was close enough to pick up the pieces if anything were to go wrong. Try as he might Kiernan could not get past McKenna and now Dermody was on his tail as well as Sweeney and on top of that his engine began to loose power. By half distance once again barring mechanical trouble, Kearney had it in the bag. Though not setting lap records this time he once again showed why he is the reigning champion.
It was hotting up behind him though now the race was drawing to a close, as Dermody had moved into third and Sweeney into fourth. Sweeney was again putting in the times faster than those ahead but just couldn’t find a way past McKenna and Dermody. McKenna was up to the challenge despite several lock ups into turn one and held firm. Both second and third placed men stayed at the same pace ensuring neither would pull away or close in anymore.
As Kearney crossed the line eight seconds clear he lay down the marker for those to match next time out. McKenna came home in second another good result with Dermody third, Sweeney fourth and Foley fifth.
The next round will bring a different challenge to the drivers at the fast Bishopscourt Racing Circuit in County Down.
Text and images – Barry Cregg