Edinburgh trio dominate Mini battleposted in MINI02 | 05 | 2011
A TRIO OF Edinburgh racers dominated the latest triple-header in the Celtic Speed Scottish Mini Cooper Cup at Knockhill. Between them the trio of Vic Covey, and brothers Tim and David Sleigh, notched two wins and a further five podiums in the three races.
Polesitter David Sleigh won the opening race, leading from start-to-finish, edging out Covey by just 0.723secs. In a tight sprint for the line, Ireland's Chris Smiley finished third just 0.307s behind David in second placed, with Tim Sleigh fourth.
In the day's second race, fought out in brilliant bright sunshine, Covey took his third win of the season, but the Edinburgh racer only achieved it after a nailbiting three-way dice involving the Sleigh brothers at the final corner of the last lap.
With little more than a car's length between them all through the race, they reached the final corner with the result far from decided.
After contact, which pitched Tim into the rear quarter of his brother and resulted in David half spinning, Covey took the win, 0.520s ahead of Tim Sleigh with brother David third.
In the final race, Smiley took full advantage of the reversed grid to capture his first win of the season, but the Irishman was chased throughout the race by the Sleigh brothers, with Tim finishing second, just 0.578s behind. David Sleigh was third with Covey fifth.
Covey now leads the Celtic Speed championship by just five points from David Sleigh, with brother Tim one point further back in third.
Celtic Speed youngsters, Steven Kerr and Daniel Dreelan, continued to impress. While Dreelan finished just outside the top 10 in the day's second race, Kerr notched two top10 finishes in races two and three.
Carnoustie's Fiona Wallace bounced back from her retirements of the first weekend by taking all three Ladies Cup victories and closing the gap to current leader Elaine Marshall from Tullibody.
The Celtic Speed Scottish Mini Cooper Cup returns to action at the beginning of June with a triple-header at Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire.
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Jim McGill
Caption: Vic Covey leads the chasing Mini pack into the Hairpin at Knockhill