Crash mars day’s racing at Nutts Corner

It was an unfortunate end to a day that had seen lap records set in almost every class.

Some of the classes had their two races, but with two ambulances and the circuit Doctors leaving the track with the injured riders, the decision was made to abandon the rest of the programme.

Marshal Neill was in great form in the 2 Superbike races. In the first he was pressed hard by Denver Robb, who was having his first race outing of the year. Denver was just .7 of a second behind the Portadown man at the line with Jason Lynn, on a 600 Suzuki, a similar distance back in third place.

Jason Lynn had a lightning start in the second race, but it wasn’t long till the bigger bikes were able to use their power to slip ahead. Marshal Neill took the win, just half a second ahead of Denver Robb, who relegated young Lynn to third towards the end of the race.

Antrim’s Jamie Patterson was the early leader of the Supersport race. By halfway, however, both Carl Phillips, who shaved .1 of a second off Christian Elkins 2011 lap record, and Jason Lynn had gone ahead.

Jamie Patterson’s younger brother Ross took a win in the Production 125 race. Riding the only 250 Kawasaki 4 stroke in the race, Patterson was well ahead of Lee Bradshaw at the flag. They were the only 2 who finished on the same lap as the leaders. Killian Quilter was third.

Run concurrently with the 125 Production bikes, Kevin Keyes was almost 11 seconds ahead of Adam Simpson in the GP125 Newcomers race. Thomas McAdoo was third, a couple of seconds adrift of Simpson.

Patterson also took a win in the second race, this time finishing almost 19 seconds ahead of Killian Quilter. Richard Kerr, from Donegal was third some 4 seconds behind Quilter.

Kevin Keyes won the GP125 Newcomers race as well. The Edenderry, Co. Offaly rider was 10.4 ahead of Thomas McAdoo, who continues to improve on the D&GW Honda. In his first season on the GP bike McAdoo was under half a second ahead of Adam Simpson.

On local man Bob Wylie’s Moto3 Honda, Conor Parkhill was in a league of his own in the Moto3/GP125 race. He streaked away from the line, leaving Randalstowns Nigel Percy and Korie McGreevy to fight it out for the lower placings. Percy just managed to hold the Ballynahinch youngster off, finishing .2 ahead.

The younger of the McGreevy brothers, Kia, has a suspected broken collarbone after a practice crash, but with a few weeks of a break now, he can take his time getting sorted out. Conor Parkhill established a lap record in this race.

The SS400s gave us a hard race as well. Alvin Griffin was pushed hard all the way by Gavin ‘PJ’ Quinn, the Enfield man having to accept second place. Griffin took the win by 1.1 seconds, while Andrew Whearty was a further half second behind Quinn, in third.

Stephen McKeown had nearly a half lap of an advantage at the finish of the Forgotten Era F1 race. The Maghera man was 16.2 seconds ahead of Chris Campbell, who was hounded right to the line by Ards man Marty McCloy. McKeown took 7.5 seconds off his own lap record for the class, although not too surprisingly it was the first race the FE1 guys have had at Nutts Corner in the dry. The last one was St. Patricks weekend, when the day started off with snow showers!

Run with the FE1s the Forgotten Era 350 race went to Mark McClenaghan. Taking .2 off Stanley Gambles record, McClenaghan was 11.4 seconds ahead of Ross Crymble, while third place went to Stephen McClenaghan.

Lopping almost a full second off his own Production Twin lap record, Dave Butler comfortably beat Aaron Armstrong into second place. Butler was 8.2 seconds ahead of the Lisniskea lad at the finish, while Daniel Annett was third. MCUI race school instructor Ian Morrell, despite being on a full Supertwin bike, could not match Butler for speed, and even though he won the Supertwins race, he was .3 slower at the finish. Coyles Wright, another man in his first race appearance of the year, took second with Brendan Glover third.

Antrim’s Mark Hanna ran out as the winner of the 250GP race. He was 4.6 seconds ahead of Toomebridge’s Padraig Graham while in third place, Michael McKerr finished a lap down. Steven Clarke was a comfortable winner of the Pre Injection race. Galgorm man Mark Featherstone, on his very distinctive R6,was second, while a similar distance back was Gareth George.

Comber’s James Conroy had a double in the two Classic races. Both times he beat his dad Alex. In the first race it was RJ Woolsey who took third, but Herbie Ronan filled the final step of the podium in the second outing.

Terry O’Reilly/Clive Russell won the first sidecar race. Peter O’Neill/Jack Galligan finished as runner up, but were catching O’Reilly/Russell fast. They simply ran out of laps. Derek Lynch and Joe Newton were third. Terry O’Reilly and Clive Russell won the second race as well, but just by .1 of a second. Peter O’Neill, who incidentally only lives about 3 miles from the circuit, and Jack Galligan recovered from a slow start and had moved to within feet of O’Reilly at the flag. Once again it was Derek Lynch/Joe Newton who completed the podium.

The Superbike Cup race was won by Michael Hoey. Jeff Garrett finished in second place comfortably in front of Greg Wilson. The Supersport Cup race went to Dean Campbell. He was hounded hard by Mark Murphy. Murphy was .03 adrift at the finish, but was still under pressure from David Holland.

With the unfortunate incident at the start of the second Superbike/Supersport Cup race and with the Medical team travelling to hospital with the injured riders, racing was abandoned at about 5pm.

COOKSTOWN THIS WEEKEND.

This weekend is the first road race of the year, the Cookstown 100. Practice is on Friday, with the roads closing at 12noon, while on Saturday it’s straight into racing, with roads closing at 10am. As far as I know the club have the option to keep the roads closed until 7.30pm on Saturday, but hopefully they will be cleared up well before that.

Next week’s report and photos will very much depend on what rules and restrictions are placed on photographers and press by the MCUI and the organising club. We will just have to play it by ear.

RT&E HAND OVER SAMARITANS CHEQUE

Based near Ballymena, Rathkenny Track and Enduro was formed when 3 friends, Keith McQuillan, Adam O’Boyle and Keith Black decided to pool their resources to allow them to compete on a wider stage in their various branches of motorcycle competition.

They formed a bond with the Samaritans, and have been able to raise money in various ways during the year, a cheque for which was handed over on Friday night.

Speaking to Adam O’Boyle he said: “We are glad to have been able to help the Samaritans. They do great work.

“Later in the year we are hoping to run a few more fundraisers for them, but we will announce details a bit nearer the time.”

Roy Adams