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On Wednesday the 23rd of November 2016, 15 DIT students went to compete in the SSI Karting Intervarsity Championship. Pallas Karting in Galway was the host to the second round of the 2016/2017 Championship.
The track conditions thankfully changed for the better after an icy start. Track conditions were extremely different compared to the last round in Whiteriver a few weeks previous. In the first heat DIT dominated the track with three first places out of the three from Eoghan Briody, Andrew Hemeryck and Dale Rothwell. Andrew Flynn, Ben Phelan and Eoin Morrison were all hot on their tails coming in second with Risteard Mulcahy close behind. Scott Wallace was showing competitive pace by coming in fourth. DIT continued to show their competitive pace in heat two with Sam Callaghan and Jack Doyle Securing first place. Hemeryck and Wallace followed close behind earning second place. Phelan and Rothwell continued their competitive streak to finish in third making the possibility of a podium place even more achievable. The third heat saw Hemeryck and Wallace achieve another first place of the day. Morrison also secured a first place with Phelan, Kristens Gailans following in second place. The DIT teams continued to show strong pace in heat four with Rothwell and Wallace securing first place. Andrew Flynn and Briody added to the points with two solid second places. Phelan made his way up the pack an astonishing four grid positions to earn third place with Mulchay and Ciaran Lanigan following close behind in fourth place. After the heats the drivers with the most points from the different colleges were picked to enter the semi-final. Briody continued his competitive pace getting another second place to secure a place in the final. Flynn and Callaghan earned their places in the final with a third and fourth place respectively. With four DIT students in the final and fierce competition Flynn made up 4 places to finish in second place. Briody was close behind in third place. Callaghan added to DITs point with fourth place while Hemeryck finished in fifth putting more points on the board for DIT. As it stands DITs A team is currently in second place. The B team is in third with the C team in eight place. DIT are heading into round 3 high up in the Championship Standings. The third round will be on the 8th of February when the 15 DIT students will head up to Nutts Corner Circuit.  We're hosting a never-done-before trip in Kart-City this evening! It's looking to be a fantastic line-up for the event, take a look! 3x DIT Karting Club 3x DCU Karting Society 1x IT Carlow Karting Society 1x Vodafone Karting Club 1x Mixed ex-intervarsity drivers Live updates will be posted here throughout the evening so stay tuned! 18:35 Teams are starting to arrive here in Kart-City! Can't wait to get qualys underway! 19:50 After some technical issues (bus problems!) we're finally starting qualifying! It's gonna be a long, wet night!  20:25 Racing has begun! Only 150 laps on this cold wet track! 21:05 The rain is torrential - but that's not stopping the drivers from getting back out there for their next stints!  21:50 Hot food from The Fryery Traditional Fish & Chips has arrived just in time to boost morale! 22:15 The majority of teams have had kart issues with the rain - leaving the finishing positions completely shaken up! Coming into the final stretch now! 11:10 And we've reached the end - just! We're all getting inside to dry off and wait for results! 11:30 Vodafone Karting Club were the winners today - showing the colleges how it's done! They were followed by IT Carlow and DCU respectively! Well done to everyone who took part, and hopefully we won't have monsoon conditions for next year's spectacle! Sincere thanks to all the teams who competed, kart-city for hosting us, OTSIM Photography for covering the event and The fryery for keeping us filled! Dublin Institute of Technology Karting Club demolished the competition in this year's SSI Intervarsities to take victory in both the team and driver championships! As the dust settled, their racers had a lot to reflect on: Not only dominating the championship, but also breaking and setting new records. These records include most points scored by both an individual driver and team in a single season, first college to place 1st and 2nd in the team standings, first time the top 4 in the driver's championship were from one college, first team to have a clean sweep of victories in a season, most drivers from a college to finish in the top 10 of the driver's championship (9), and first team to outscore the competition on every round. It was quite a year for the club!
Next up is the DIT Karting Club's biggest challenge to date. Last year the Club lodged a last minute entry to the British University Karting Championship's flagship 24hr race, and finished 5th on their first try! They are aiming to go 4 better and try to take victory against the best kart racers the UK has to offer and even send a second team if possible. If you want to get onboard with Irish third level karting's most successful club, we will be looking for sponsors for the event! Check out our video of the final round of the championship, recorded and edited by jTurn Media! Championship Standings
Thanks to everyone who came along to our first two rounds of this year's DIT Karting Championship! We have well and truly kicked off the year in Kylemore Karting on the 2nd and Kart-City Raceway on the 8th October! Niall Murray is pulling out in front of the Driver's Championship, however there are still plenty of races left to make a difference!
Our next round is a Simulator event in Bolton St. Come down and have a crack on our Thrustmaster T500 running Gran Turismo 6; fastest lap time wins! Entry is only €1 for members and new sign-ups get a free go! Prizes for fastest driver, fastest fresher and fastest lady, with points for the top 40 going towards our championship! See current championship points here. We are always recruiting new members, sign up now online and come along to our next event! Fresher's week begins on the 17th of September this year in Grangegorman. We will of course be at our stall in each campus over the week ready to meet some new faces!
You can sign up to the club right now online , all you have to do during fresher's week is pay the small membership fee of €2. This will get you your membership card, which entitles you to many discounts! We have a jam-packed year planned, which we will be explaining on our information evening in Bolton St on Monday 29th September (6pm Room 134). Be sure to come along! |
