After an unexpected early finish, Limerick’s Paul O’Connell took a split-second victory in Ireland’s most historic motor race, the Leinster Trophy at Mondello Park.

In the first of two races for Boss Formula Libre cars, O’Connell was forced to retire with engine problems on his Dallara, leaving Cian Carey to take a narrow win, seven tenths of a second ahead of Lucca Allen. 


With his car back on full song, O’Connell seized the lead at the start of the feature race, with former Young Racing driver of the year Carey right on his tail all the way. Lap after lap, they circulated together, with O’Connell always in front, if only by a few inches. 


On the eighth of the scheduled twelve laps, O’Connell missed a gear change and Carey dived ahead to take the lead for the first time, but fate had other ideas when an unrelated incident caused the race to be red flagged off early. 


As detailed regulations covering this situation require the race result to be declared on the lap before the red flag is displayed, this effectively nullifies any advantage that might have been gained because of the incident causing the stoppage, meaning that, as O’Connell led at the vital moment and he was declared the Leinster Trophy winner for 2020.