Donegal sports car ace Damien Faulkner clinched a split-second victory in the Six Hour Ford Fiesta Endurance Race at Mondello Park.

Driving for Southside Motor Factors, Faulkner finished just six tenths of a second ahead of the first of the Murray Motorsport cars, after over 300 miles of racing.

Faulkner, along with team mates Neil Tohill, Gerard Tohill and Keith Dempsey, took an early lead during the opening laps of the marathon race, but a pit stop saw them drop back down to 17th place. Working their way back up through the packed field, they took the lead again at the three quarter distance mark. In the final stint to the chequered flag, the two leading cars duelled all the way, with the lead changing hands several times, but Faulkner got ahead of John Farrelly with nine minutes to the end and stayed there to the finish despite some problems while lapping backmarkers.

Faulkner, from Moville, does most of his racing overseas, but began his professional career in Formula Vauxhall Junior back in 1995. The Donegal driver would go on to dominate the European Formula Palmer Audi series in 2000, snatching a total of six victories on his way to the title. Faulkner’s debut Supercup season yielded two wins, securing invites to two of the biggest pre-season events on the calendar, the Dubai 24hrs and 24 Hours of Daytona.