Kildare man Jonathan Fildes is set to take to the tarmac at Mondello this weekend. Justin Hynes has a word or two with an Irish hopeful
A sort of homecoming. This weekend Jonathan Fildes will clamber behind the wheel of his Porsche 911 at Mondello and try to show his British-based rivals just how to wring the neck of the circuit he grew up racing on.
It's his first time back at the Kildare track in almost two years. And he's terrified. "I don't want to look stupid!" he laughs. "There'll be a lot of people there backing me but also a lot of people who won't! I don't want to fall flat on my face."
Fildes last raced at Mondello in 2002, winning the RT2000 trophy for the second year running. He returns to the Kildare track as part of the British Touring Car (BTCC) programme which reaches Ireland on June 11th and 12th.
Fildes is enthusiastic about the prospect of bringing the show to Kildare. "It's a great package," says the 28-year-old. "In Britain we have the Touring cars and the Porsches as well as the (Renault) Clios and Seats. But the Clios and Seat won't be over because of export problems, so we've got rounds of the British Formula BMW championship along with us, which should be good."
Fildes currently lies fourth in the UK Porsche Carrera Cup in his first season in the series, no mean feat against experienced campaigners such as series leader and ex-touring car racer Tim Harvey, and former Formula One hopeful Richard Westbrook, who lies just 12 points ahead of Fildes in second place.
"It's tough," says Fildes. "Competition is intense. Those guys at the front are really experienced and incredibly competitive. Put it this way - I've been off on the grass only twice this year and Tim Harvey put me there both times. They don't race like gentleman."
The Porsches are a major step up for Fildes. Despite winning the Renaultsport UK Clio Cup at his first attempt last year, the first time a rookie had ever won the title, the move to Porsches has been a revelation. "They're beasts," he admits. "It's double the horsepower of anything I've ever raced before, certainly at Mondello, and they're tricky. For a start they have ABS, which is stupid on a racing car because you can't drive the way you want. Anything But Stop I call it."
And ahead of the Mondello rounds of the Cup, ABS is top of Fildes's agenda.
"We're doing some testing the week before the rounds, at Mondello, to try and work out the ABS. I think it's too sensitive, so we need to do some running to figure out if it's me or the car."
After winning the Clio Cup last year the intention had been for Fildes to move from Renaults to the BTCC series this season but, as so often happens to struggling Irish drivers, the sponsorship simply wasn't available to fund a drive that can cost upwards of £1m (€1.5 million).
"It's crazy money," admits Fildes. "It's all in sterling, so you might as well double it for Irish drivers. The cheapest drive we could have got was coming in at around £500,000. It's crazy. You can do the Porsches for a fraction of that and it's a good series. It's a bit of a sideways step but it's proving to be very good for me."
All of which is a little strange back in Fildes home of Clonee, where he works as a foreman in a Peugeot dealership.
"A lot of them didn't believe I raced when they first heard," Fildes says. "There was one apprentice who would never believe me and then one night he was watching television and saw a clip of me racing Clios and then Porsches: But it's not like I get given a Porsche to drive around in or anything.
"It's not so strange really. They have been brilliant to me. I head over to the race weekends the day before the meeting and then back to work on a Monday. They've been great about time off."
With the next rounds on home soil, time off might be hard for Fildes to come by, and he reckons he needs all the test time he can get, as he feels he won't have a significant advantage at his home circuit.
"Most of the guys were over last year with the Porsches and some have already been over this year so I don't think I'll have any great edge" he says. "But, I don't know, maybe having been around there so many times there's always a few bits you might know better, you kind of know every bump and hollow at the place.
"It will still be tough though. This is the most powerful things I'll have ever driven around there, at 140-160 mph it's a lot quicker. But I'm looking forward to it. It should be a good weekend."