Clubmans season underway

DESPITE bad weather forecasts, the first round of the Irish Clubmans Championship took place at Bishopscourt last Saturday, in near perfect conditions.

Practice was held on a damp track, which quickly dried. leaving the riders, some 200 of them, with a good days racing.

Ballymena's Sam Wilson took the first double of his tarmac career, despite a slip off in practice. In the first race he finished almost 6 seconds ahead of Ahoghill's Luke Johnston, while Jason Lynn took third, a similar distance adrift.

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Wilson had to make up ground after a slow start in race two, coming from behind and passing Lynn with a couple of laps to go. Setting the fastest lap on his penultimate circuit, the Ballymena lad took his second race win from as many starts, finishing 1.6 seconds ahead of Lynn, while Nigel Parks took third.

Ballynahinch rider Korie McGreevy was a double winner in the 125Production race. He won the first outing by almost 25 seconds from Adam McLean and Kevin Keys, while in the second outing McLean headed Aaron McBride home.

The two Bridgestone Supersport 600 races were crackers. In the first Nico Mawhiney, Michael McKinley and Carl Phillips were wheel to wheel for much of the race.

After setting his own personal fastest lap of the fastest lap of the race, Mawhinney dropped out with a couple of laps to go, leaving Phillips, whose dad Joe is a top road racer, to claim his first race win. Phillips had to post the quickest lap of the race on the final lap, to beat McKinley into second place by just .8 of a second. Timmy Elwood took third place, after leading in the early stages.

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The second race was stopped at about half distance, after McKinley fell. He wasn't injured. On the restart, Phillips was able to take his place, and had to work hard to make a break on Robert Kennedy. Breaking the Clubmans 600 lap record, Carl won by over 12 seconds from Kennedy and Nico Mawhinney.

Paul Dornan took the first Senior and Superstock combined race. He beat Daniel O'Connell by 11 seconds, after O'Connell had to recover from a terrible start. Third position went to Anthony Rogan.

Dornan retired in the second race, leaving Drogheda man Damien Horgan to regsiter his first race win. Jonathon McKelvey brought his Honda across the line in second place, while recently returned to racing after a retirement, Banbridge man Rodney Singleton took third.

Alan Kenny had no equals in the two Pre97 races. In the first he won by 1.2 seconds, with Damien McBreen finishing as runner up. James McCann was a distant third. In the second race, Kenny cleared off to win by 10.5 seconds. Again it was McCann who finished in third place.

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One of the brightest talents to hit Classic racing in recent years, James Conroy, took two race wins, and a new lap record, to boot. In the first race he was 38.6 seconds ahead of Robert McCrum, while Eanie Horan finished third. In race two, Conroy chopped over half a second off his own lap record for the 350 Classic class winning by 22.5 seconds. McCrum again took second place, while Gary Jamison was third.

Ballymena man Denver Robb took a race win and a second place in the two National Open races. Denver pushed early leader Marshal Neill hard, with the Portadown man sliding off his bike before the end of the first lap.

It gave Robb a useful cushion, and he held on to take a .2 of a second win from Randalstown man Gerard Kinghan. Kirk Jamison was third.

With hasty repairs made to his bike, Neill pipped Robb by just .4 of a second in the second race. Kirk Jamison took another third place.

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Mick Jordan and Richard Glasgow had a win and a second place each in the two non qualifiers races, but had Glasgow not been penalised 10 seconds in the first race, for being late into the warm up area, then it would have been a double for him.

A well run day's racing, and with some fantastic talent emerging from Clubmans, it looks good for the rest of the season.

BARRYS DO

Just a quick mention for the disco that Barry Davidson and his supporters are running in the Rangers Club, in Clough this Saturday night.

Barry has a busy season mapped out, and after starting the year with a couple of wins in the 250 Classic class at Bishopscourt last Saturday, he has made a good start to his 2010 racing campaign.

The entertainment gets under way at 8pm.

NIGEL PERCY FUNDRAISER

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Another local rider who is holding a fundraiser is Randalstown man Nigel Percy.

He will be having what he described as an Evening of Fun and Games, in the Dunsilly Hotel, Antrim this Friday, March 26, at 8.30pm sharp.

The evening will feature hypnotist Richard Morrow, and then afterwards music will be supplied by Craic of Don. Admission will be 10 by ticket or pay at the door.

ENGLISH INJURED

Undoubtedly one of the finds of last year, Robert English, had a nasty crash at Kirkistown at a track day last Friday.

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The then 15 year old easily won the Clubmans championship, and finished second to Mark Lunney in the overall national series.

When testing last week he took a nasty fall, breaking the middle finger on his left hand, and sustaining tendon damage to the hand as well. He had an operation on Saturday, and had the hand repaired. Doctors say it will be about six weeks before he can race with it.

Robert was annoyed about the crash, but for no other reason than it would force him to sit out the two Easter weekend meetings, a total of five races.

His dad Paul told me on Sunday night: “There was a fairly substantial stone on the track, as we also found an 11mm spanner lying too. It's not ours, because we haven't an 11mm nut on the bike at all.”

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Elder brother Christopher has pronounced himself happy with his bike, after he completed the test day, but understandably was annoyed by Robert's accident.

The English Brothers team will be announcing a few changes regarding sponsorship over the next couple of weeks, so watch this space, as they say. I wish Robert.

Hopefully Robert can bounce back from this as quickly as possible and I wish him well in his recovery.