Ballymena man Neil Kernohan lifts the Loanends Championship

For the Loanends club it was the 18th year of their awards, which have, over the years, seen quite a few of our top road racers pick up the top prize in the early days of their careers.

At Bush, Neil had a DNF in the Junior Support race and a 4th place in the Senior event.

At Tandragee, a 6th and another 4th put him in great form for the Bush meeting. He had a second and a win there.

It looked like he was on for a race win at Armoy as well, but at the finish the local man had to give best to Sean Connolly by .03 of a second, but with the Southern centre rider not eligible to score points it counted as a win. He also won the Senior class.

After being presented with the Joey Dunlop Memorial Cup and replica, Neil paid tribute to his team and to the members on the Loanends club who have worked hard to keep the championship running, helping out riders who get little or no recognition from the mainstream media.

Third place, and the WR Beckett Cup went to Portadown man Robert Cairns, while William Hara from Coleraine was second. For that he received the Trevor Steele Memorial Cup.

The winner of the Harold Johnston Memorial Cup was Neil Kernohan. This was for the rider who achieved the best performances during the year. It was presented by Lyla Johnston, the late Harolds wife and hard working secretary of the Loanends club.

SUPERMOTO SERIES.

As I mentioned a few weeks ago there is to be a three round supermoto championship to be held this year.

The first of the rounds will be this Sunday, in Omagh, with racing getting under way at 12noon. The second round is on November 2 at Eglinton and the final round at the Nutts Corner kart track on the November 18.

The final round will have a special race for the David Jefferies Trophy.

Sadly I won’t be able to make the first of the rounds in Omagh, but I hope to be at the rest of them. The first round clashes with a minimoto race meeting at Nutts Corner which will have a race for road racers or retired road racers.

SUNFLOWER

This week there is to be a press release for the Sunflower meeting.

The final round of the ISB series, the meeting is eagerly awaited by local fans, who like to get a look at some of the English riders they don’t get a chance to see all year.

I will have a round up next week of the riders who are pencilled in for that one.

Already names like Alistair Seeley, Glenn Irwin, Andy Reid, Danny Buchan, Ben Wilson and Dean Harrison are being bandied about.

As if the Supersport 600 races haven’t been good enough all year with our own lads, they throw that lot in. Bound to be good now.