IRISH MASTER-CLASS // A1GP SEASON FINALE @ BRANDS HATCH

Adam Carroll and Team Ireland claimed the 2008/2009 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport at Brands Hatch this Sunday, comfortably outclassing their championship rivals with a dominant performance.

The only time this season that a nation has been victorious in both races on the same day, it was the emerald green team that claimed a double win bringing the 2008-2009 season to a close amid emotional scenes of celebration. For Carroll and Mark Gallagher's squad this was a richly deserved and long overdue title, as they were one of the first teams to commit to the series back in 2005 and have toiled relentlessly in pursuit of the crown.

ColdTrackDay's UK correspondent Neil Tozer was trackside this weekend and brings us his raceday report... [read more]

The day had started with the morning sprint race at the Kent venue which saw a healthy crowd basking in the spring sunshine over this, a holiday weekend in the UK.

With all eyes on the start lights along the Brabham straight, it was the Mexican Salvador Duran who made the slightly better getaway, swiftly pulling alongside poleman Carroll who certainly didn't want to risk any contact as they funnelled into Paddock Hill bend, Duran (below) braved it around the outside and emerged over the brow and into Druid's at the front of the field.

The third of the potential title contenders, Portugal, immediately dropped places running wide through Paddock as the Team USA car of J.R. Hildebrand made contact with his right rear. USA managed to gather up the moment though and slotted into third. Neel Jani managed to avoid any potential first lap carnage but remained eighth away from the line. Lap two however saw Jani in the Swiss car make a mistake at Paddock which cost him a place to John Martin for Team Australia.

Lap three, and with the drivers now settling into a rhythm, Carroll set the quickest lap as he began to close in on Mexico who by now had a small advantage.

The window for the one mandatory sprint pit stop was between lap four and nine, and it was Karthekeyan for Team India who elected to stop first from his fifth place at the end of lap four. Duran and Carroll pulled into the pitlane on the next lap and it was a straight battle between the two pit crews. Mexico had the slower stop with time being lost replacing the left front and with that Ireland rejoined ahead of them with Duran falling behind India.

Yet to stop was Team USA with Hildebrand now getting the hammer down and bettering Carroll's fastest lap. Jani elected to stop on lap six, rejoining with no drama. Hildebrand came in a lap later and with good work by the team managed to rejoin ahead of Mexico in third place.

With nine laps gone, the order was Ireland from India, USA, Mexico, Portugal (below), Netherlands, Australia and Switzerland.

Pushing hard, the charging Hildebrand ran wide at Clearways losing momentum which allowed Duran to outdrag him across the start line.

On lap 15 going into Paddock Hill Bend, Team Lebanon's Daniel Morad (below) lost his rear-end at mid corner and the helpless New Zealand car of Earl Bamber had nowhere to go, leaving both of them out on the spot buried in the gravel trap. Bamber's expression told a thousand words as both drivers made it safely behind the armco. Both cars were deemed to be far enough from the edge of the circuit that a safety car was not needed.

Over the remaining few minutes of the race Team USA closed back in on Mexico after their earlier mistake, but then struggled in the turbulent air and without any powerboosts remaining, a late pass was not really an option.

Ireland took the flag by a six second margin from India, with Mexico holding off the hard charging Hildebrand for the final podium spot. Adam Carroll was jubilant but remained cautious with the feature race still to go. Courtesy of his win and fastest lap, and with Jani and Albuquerque finishing behind him in 8th and 5th respectively, the task for the afternoon had become a whole lot easier.

The permutations were now that if Ireland finished sixth or higher in the feature race then the title would be theirs.

Jani was downbeat after coming home just inside the top ten. He had virtually conceded the title and now was more concerned over making sure he was not overtaken for second in the final standings by Portugal.

Sprint Race Result Top Ten:
1. Ireland - Adam Carroll, 16 laps
2. India - Narain Karthikeyan, +7.230s
3. Mexico - Salvador Duran, +12.340s
4. USA - JR Hildebrand, +12.689s
5. Portugal - Filipe Albuquerque, +13.018s
6. Netherlands - Jeroen Bleekemolen, +13.783s
7. Australia - John Martin, +15.208s
8. Switzerland - Neel Jani, +22.220s
9. France - Nicolas Prost, +22.945s
10. Italy - Vitantonio Liuzzi, +27.062s

Brands and A1GP always puts on a good show and before the feature race there is an opening ceremony. At Brands we had skydiving, marching bands, motorcycle display teams, TW Steel grid girls (below) and the drivers paraded around the circuit on an open top London bus. All this you may say is totally secondary to the action on circuit, but for the casual first time race goer it provides at least something on circuit at all times, which with having to adhere to strict TV broadcasting timescales across the globe is increasingly difficult.

Come three o'clock and it was time to start the final race of the 2008-2009 season. It actually became a rather truncated affair as the first start had to be aborted due to the South African car stalling on the grid. After another formation lap, the field of 600bhp Ferrari V8 engined cars were away and thundered their way into Paddock. This time Carroll was quicker off the mark and headed the field from Monaco, Netherlands and Switzerland, but then came the midfield battle who as in previous feature races at Brands, contrived to create carnage. USA gave China a slight tap on the rear for the plunging downhill right hander, China spun and collected the unfortunate Indian car of Karthekeyan who came off worse and was lucky not to roll as he careened through the gravel trap.

USA was able to continue but would need to call at the pits for a new nose-cone. The safety car was deployed while the snatch vehicles pulled both cars to safety and soon the race was underway again.

Carroll immediately set out to build a cushion to the chasing pack and had a five second lead by the end of the fifth lap. New Zealand's wretched weekend continued, as earl Bamber lost the all black car on the brakes approaching Westfield and retired in the gravel trap.

The first round of pitstops saw Ireland first to stop along with Portugal. The only real loser was Monaco who choose to stay out a couple of laps longer, but the tactic failed and they dropped to fifth.

Dan Clarke for Team GBR was having a better run in the feature and the 25 yr old produced a classic late braking maneuver on Australia's John Martin into Paddock on lap 14, moving himself up to 7th place.

Jani in third was trying all he knew to pressure Bleekemolen into a mistake, but was to be thwarted by a broken exhaust meaning he had to nurse the car home.

The midpart of the race saw Netherlands (below) cut Carroll's lead down to five seconds but it was obvious that the Irish driver was pacing himself until his second stop and fresh rubber.

Lap 28 and Carroll was in again, the first of the leading runners to stop. Bleekemolen came in a lap later but with both of their stops pretty much identical, there was to be no change of leader.

The increasingly sick sounding engine of last seasons champion Neel Jani was a precursor to him producing a great defensive display in holding off the cars of Monaco and Portugal. Jani at last felt he had the car handling much better but had to make his car extremely wide to fend off the chasing pair especially under powerboost at the end of the straight.

Carroll (above) coasted home with ten seconds to spare from the Dutch car having never been seriously threatened to take the title. A popular win it was too, with Adam pulling up on the pit straight in front of the gathered Irish fans. The normally quite reserved man from Portadown climbed from the Irish car and saluted his team before being surrounded by media, family and friends. He later admitted that he had been in tears on the last lap and was so relieved that he had repayed the team that had worked tirelessly all season to give him the car to get the job done.

Feature Race Result Top Ten:
1. Ireland - Adam Carroll, 49 laps
2. Netherlands - Jeroen Bleekemolen, +10.156s
3. Switzerland - Neel Jani, +13.564s
4. Monaco - Clivio Piccione, +14.293s
5. Portugal - Filipe Albuquerque, +16.484s
6. Mexico - Salvador Duran, +21.810s
7. Great Britain - Dan Clarke, +23.409s
8. Australia - John Martin, +24.493s
9. Italy - Vitantonio Liuzzi, + l lap
10. France - Nicolas Prost, + 1 lap

Final Championship Standings Top Ten:
1. Ireland 112
2. Switzerland 95
3. Portugal. 92
4. Netherlands 75
5. France 47
6. Malaysia 43
7. New Zealand 36
8. Australia 36
9. Monaco 35
10.Breat Britain 28

The podium was awash with emerald green, as A1GP CEO Tony Texiera presented an ecstatic Carroll and Ireland seat holder, Mark Gallagher, with the trophy for the 2008-2009 season.

For a still very young race series that has had it's fair share of trials and tribulations, this season has been a tremendous success. The change over to the new chassis and Ferrari power doesn't seem to have adversely affected the racing and the main principles of the series are still evident.

Here's hoping the GP track at Brands Hatch will be back on the A1GP calendar for next year! Proper cars, proper circuit, enough said!

Photo/Editorial: Neil Tozer