Surprises were the order of the day as the leaders of the Patch Tyre Equipment Fiesta ST Championship and the Mondello Park Fiesta Zetec Championship both lost ground to their main rivals as the second placed drivers, Shane McFadden and Owen Purcell out-scored the table toppers.

While both classes were tight at the front, the Zetec class produced the most excitement with the podium positions left undecided until the closing stages of both races. Pole sitter William Kellett was beaten away from the lights in race one by Owen Purcell who then held off every attempt by Kellett to overtake, lifting his fifth race win in a row by a tenth of a second, to move into the championship lead for the first time.

The second race saw Purcell again lead from the start but behind him a titanic battle ensued between Lawless, Kellett, O'Donoghue, Denis McCrudden and Mark Johnston. Lawless kept O'Donoghue at bay initially before Kellett moved past O'Donoghue and set his eyes on second place. Following a fraught few laps, and a number of attempts to pass Lawless, Kellett finally made it stick and headed off after the leader. This left a battle for the final place on the podium between four drivers, which was decided on the final lap when McCrudden spun off at Calor Gas corner, slowing O'Donoghue and Johnston and leaving Lawless an easy run to third place. Up front Kellett ran out of laps to catch Purcell who made it six in a row and extended his championship lead to eight points.

Race one for the Patch Tyre Equipment Fiesta ST Championship saw Shane McFadden take an unusually easy win as he converted his pole position into his fourth victory of the season. Points leader David Maguire dropped to fourth off the start and took until the second last lap to work his way back into his customary top two position, passing Darragh McMullen and Michael Cullen late on.

With grid positions reversed for race two, pole position was occupied by Galway’s Tom Fahy with John Denning alongside. From the restart Fahy and Denning were locked together in the top two positions without Denning ever really making a serious effort at the lead due to pressure from behind from Cullen. McFadden was unable to make the most of his opportunity as he finished fourth behind debut winner Fahy, Denning and Cullen, to remain three points of the top spot.

Both Fiesta Championships will now go down to the wire at the two day Leinster Trophy even on the Mondello Park International Track on September 16th and 17th.