Podium finish rounds off a difficult weekend for dempsey

Mullingar teenager Jordan Dempsey headed north of the border to Kirkistown, County Down for rounds three and four of the 2015 Ginetta Junior Ireland Championship last weekend.

Having secured his maiden race victory at the same venue in 2014, Jordan was keen to return to the top step over the course of Saturday’s two races.

Friday’s pre-event test day proved difficult for Dempsey and his MCP team due to a worsening straight-line speed problem in their Ginetta G20 leaving them with some work to do overnight before qualifying.

Unfortunately it appeared they hadn’t quite got to the bottom of the issue and Jordan could only manage to place himself fourth on the grid for the day’s two races following a wet qualifying session.

With very little time between qualifying and race one, Jordan was forced to persevere with the ongoing issue and do his best to secure some strong championship points.

Getting a great run to the first corner, Dempsey challenged for the lead around the outside of this fellow competitors but having failed to sufficiently adjust his brakes from the morning’s wet session, Jordan locked up and narrowly avoided running off track. As a result he was now down in seventh place as set off on a fantastic recovery drive.

After executing some very skillful maneuvers, Jordan crossed the line in a strong fourth place.

Another blistering start from the second row of the grid would this time see Jordan head the field rounding the first corner. With his Ginetta G20 now back on full song following a gearbox change, Dempsey began to pull away from the chasing pack going onto the back straight.

Such is the nature of the tow around Kirkistown, it wasn’t long before James Roe amongst others had caught up and Jordan was forced to switch into defensive mode. Holding his lead during the early part of the race, second place driver William Harron, tried a move around the outside for the lead coming into Colonial before running out of road and going off track.

Unfortunately for Jordan he was collected by the rejoining Harron and spun out of the lead. Faced with yet another battle back up through the field from back in seventh, Jordan never gave up and was still passing his fellow competitors right up until the last corner where he snatched third place from Loris Nicolov to secure himself a podium finish and the fastest lap of the race by over half a second.

Jordan now sits third in the Ginetta Junior Ireland Championship as the series heads into a small break to allow its competitors to focus on their school exams. The Championship gets back underway with rounds five and six at Kirkistown on Saturday June 27.

"Yes it was a difficult weekend," Dempsey said. "We had a developing problem from testing onwards and into qualifying which meant we didn't get into a good rhythm.

"Race one started well, but a small mistake early on meant I had to work my way back up the field to finish fourth. Race two was much better as I managed to lead the race early on.

"Sadly contact during the race sent me down the order but I got back up to third in the final corner and set the fastest lap of the race by six tenths of a second. It wasn't a bad way to end the weekend and nice to get a good result for the team.

"Now it's just the long wait until the end of June to get back in action! A big thanks to my team MCP and my sponsors Mullingar Car Pretesting and P1 : Digital."

Jordan Dempsey is a third year student at Mullingar Community College and member of a family steeped in motorsport heritage. A third generation of the Dempsey family to race in Ireland, Jordan's father (Morgan Jnr) and grandfather (Morgan Snr) have held distinguished records in Irish Motor Racing.

Their success has fuelled Jordan's ambition to continue that success within the sport having made the transition from karting in 2014 to the hugely popular Ginetta Junior Ireland Championship.