AS THE temperatures soared so did speeds at Carlow Car Club's recent sprints festival which were held in Bagenalstown and Athy. The club received a record number of entries for their two day event with a total of 116 competitors starting on the Sunday and 85 starting on Monday.

This year saw the return of the Magnus Hillclimb Championship to the events and was also counting rounds of the Members Club Championship. There was a tremendous turnout of cars on both days ranging from the high powered Delta T79 of former Hillclimb Champion Paul O'Connell to a large selection of rallycars.

The weather could not have been better and a large number of spectators turned up to see the action and were not left disappointed. Limerick man Paul O'Connell took the overall award on the 2 days over Simon McKinley, while there was only a margin of 1.47 secs separating the pair on Sunday O'Connell stretched this to 2.02 secs on Monday in Athy.

A total of 10 ladies competed in the event on Sunday which was great as competing ladies are a scare in the world of motorsport one of these was Denise Ryan.

Although Denise is no stranger to the sport having competed quite successfully for many years on the circuit and rally scene the weekend saw her return after a break of six years. But in her absence from the sport her driving skills didn't wane and she proved this as she took second in the ladies on Sunday and first on Monday putting in some very impressive times and possibly leaving some of the lads a little bit red faced.

The Cullen family were also out in force with brothers David, John, Mark, Paul, Maurice and sister Fiona with her husband Paul Driver all competing. The lads done very well with Mark taking 1st in class 9A on both days and finishing 8th overall on Monday leaving him the highest placed Carlow member on the day, David finished 2nd in class 10. Paul took 3rd in class 9A on Sunday while John and Maurice suffered with gearbox problems on the first day the lads soon rectified this replacing them on Sunday night and were back on form in Monday's event seeing John scoop second in Class 9A.

Wicklow man Trevor Culbert topped the poll in Sundays event taking 1st in class 10 and 15th overall making him the highest placed club member in Sundays event even with reports of a misfire. Sam Smyth was 3rd in class 10 in his immaculately turned out MkII. Diarmuid O'Toole made his debut in his self built Aries Locost 7 and despite having to retire after the second run due to an oil leakage Diarmuid finished 28th overall and 3rd in the highly competitive class 3B.

Other members who did well were John Hade 3rd in class 10, Aidan Perse 2nd and 3rd class 9a, Emmet Watchorn 1st and 2nd, Paul Grogan 3rd class 9. Ken Treacy and Francis Kelly battled it out in class 8 leaving Ken to take 1st with a time of 50.58 and Francis taking 2nd with a time 50.98. Shane Hade took class 8 honours in Monday's event. Laura Eustace took her Formula Vee home 2nd and 3rd in class 5A and Bobby Hennessey was 1st and 2nd in class 1 with his Vauxhall Nova.

The weekend's results also saw a turnaround in the overall positions in the Club Championship where Noel O'Brien and Paul Doyle have been battling it out for the top slot O'Brien went into the events with a lead of 2 points over Doyle but this lead was reversed following the results of the sprints and Pau now leads by two points. With three rounds left to go it looks like a good battle is ahead between this pair.