The change to the sun shine this weekend was the perfect switch for young Killybegs driver Jayden Mc Brearty after winning the RSA winter series North and South to start the ICCR (Irish Championship Circuit Racing) for the opening round in Mondello.
With a new season brings new sponsors and Jayden’s mini livery and service vehicles have been updated to welcome new sponsors for the busy year ahead that are vital to contest championships for any driver.
Conditions were perfect on Friday for the first test session of the 2025 season. This allowed all drivers to get through the first scrutiny of the season. The ICCR Championship technical specification is very detailed and is these regulations are the foundations for what the F1 technical regulations are based on with all cars being weighed and measured exactly.
Once this was all over Jayden and the 2025 drivers got a chance to shakedown the minis and adjust settings for Sunday’s racing.
Sundays racing day was made up of a 15 minutes morning qualifying followed by two 15 minute races on the National Circuit in Mondello Park just outside of Dublin. There was 19 starters for this round of the ICCR.
The qualifying session was Red Flagged following an accident with all cars directed to the pits. In a Rookie mistake by 6 teams including Jaydens any teams “working on the cars” which in our case was as little as checking tire pressure earned the 6 teams a penalty of starting from the back of the grid. This was an unfortunate start to the first race but with circuit racing rules are applied to the letter of the law and fairly across the grid just like in F1 where we saw the 2 Ferraris excluded recently. In circuit racing penalties, queries and appeals are a lot more commonplace and this is another skill that is learned with experience on the grid.
Starting from the back of the grid was disappointing in 14th but these are the races that build character and Jayden got the head down in Race 1 to go from P14 to P8 and was gaining but with the tight nature of wheel to wheel racing Jayden got Rear ended in a heavy enough impact which knocked out the cars suspension set up and gave the service crew plenty to do before Race 2.
Race 2 saw Jayden make a serious charge through the grid going from P14 to finish in P4 and was extremely happy to make up 10 places in this highly competitive series, but disappointed to be just short of a podium place for Round 1. All the day’s racing was shown live on Youtube with the young Killybegs Driver getting many positive comments on his progress through a tight grid in both races.
Max Hart, Hyundai Elantra N TCR championship driver, commented on Jaydens Social Media…”Unbelievable driving for this kid (Jayden McBrearty) today! 14th to 7th in Race1 and an unbelievable drive to go from 14th to 4th in Race 2. Matching his best result yet, the podium is calling”
A big weekend of learning for Jayden in the opening round of the ICCR championship with lots of positives to be taken back to the hills of Donegal ahead of Round 2.
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