McMullan’s magic flair returns for Silverstone finals day
Jonny McMullan arrived into Silverstone on Sunday morning, firmly hoping to finish what had been his most successful season to date racing as the Dunlop Motorsport Ireland Young Racing Driver of the Year on a high.
Having discovered the cause surrounding his loss of speed during the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch during Friday’s pre-event test, McMullan had shown his customary impressive form during Saturday’s proceedings. Winning his heat, McMullan’s time was good enough to place him on the outside of row two for the first Semi-Final of the day on Sunday.
Making a good start to the race, McMullan joined into what would become a race long battle amongst four cars for the lead. Swapping positions on almost every lap with Graham Carroll, Josh Fisher and fellow Northern Irish driver Wayne Boyd, McMullan spent a large part of the race in third before slipping to fourth in the closing stages of the race where he would remain to the end. Crucially, McMullan’s confidence in the car was now at an all time high in advance of Sunday afternoon’s Walter Hayes Trophy Final.
Lining up in eighth position for the final race of his 2015 season, McMullan initially made a superb start during the opening laps. However the race was abruptly haulted due to a clash at the head of the field and after a lengthy break and darkness now beginning to descend on the Silverstone circuit, the race was eventually restarted with Jonny starting from the outside of row three. Another strong start allowed McMullan to challenge for the first of the podium places. However coming into Copse corner, a four car wide battle for position would prove difficult to master and Jonny was forced off the track into immediate retirement with suspension damage to his Van Diemen.
Despite his disappointing end to the Walter Hayes Trophy, Jonny’s 2015 season has seen one of the strongest performances for the Motorsport Ireland Young Racing Driver of the Year programme to date, with a number of high-profile successes including:
All Ireland Formula Ford 1600 Champion
Vivion Daly Trophy Champion
BRSCC British Formula Ford 1600 National Champion
BRSCC British Formula Ford 1600 Triple Crown Champion
Jonny McMullan – Dunlop Motorsport Ireland Young Racing Driver of the Year: “It was bitterly disappointing to crash out of the Walter Hayes Trophy final while still in a very strong position to challenge for the win, mainly because I wanted to end this fantastic season with one last big result. It’s been an absolutely brilliant year and looking back today at my results which included three championship titles, 17 pole position starts, 10 wins and 21 podiums in total, it really is a credit to everyone involved in this programme which I’m so happy I’ve been able to reward their faith in me with some top results. I couldn’t have done it without the help of Bernard and Sam Dolan, Mick Merrigan, Morgan Dempsey Jnr and all my sponsors, Motorsport Ireland, The Irish Sports Council, Dunlop, Naylor Engineering, P1 : Digital and of course all my family for their support!”
