Crash provides only blot on fantastic racing at Mondello

Organised by the Irish Sidecar and Motorcycle racing club, and with Jim McDonnell as Clerk of the Course, the meeting ran like clockwork, with surprisingly very few red flags, despite the fact that circuit had a lot of patches of recently laid tarmac.

I depend a lot on the official results for my reports but this week the timekeepers haven’t sent them. Mondello has always been very hard, if not impossible, to get results from.

Sometimes it’s down to the mylaps website, which might or might not be updated with them before the middle of the following week. At this time, Monday morning, they still haven’t appeared there, so I’m working from memory.

I was out on track taking photos, and therefore not able to see what happened at the start-finish line, so if what I see isn’t the same as the results it’s not my fault. Apologies now.

In Sunday’s two Supersport 600 races, the first was red flagged due to an incident involving Stephen McAdoo. The Dungannon rider was uninjured, but his bike was lying on the track at a place where marshals couldn’t retrieve it.

The result was declared, with local man Jamie Patterson taking the win. Jamie had a quick get away, holding off David Haire and Mark Conlin.

In the second Supersport 600 race there was more of the same, as Patterson streaked off the line. At the end of the opening lap he led by a full second. Sadly that didn’t last and Jamie slid to earth at turn 2. He was unhurt. It left David Haire and Mark Conlin to battle it out for the rest of the race. Recovering from a bad start, Nico Mawhinney moved up to Declan Hoey as the race progressed, but Hoey grabbed third place.

The Pre Injection and 250GP race was next. In the first one Ronan Shanahan, on a GP bike, led in the early stages with Paraic Dooley the leading Pre Injection, right on his back wheel. Dooley soon used the power of his R6 to get ahead of Shanahan, who was soon passed by Thomas Lawlor.

Antrim’s Mark Hanna was last on the opening lap, and as I don’t have results, I’m not sure where he finished, but he certainly was making up places very quickly. The last time the riders passed me, it was Dooley from Lawlor and Shanahan.

There was more of the same in the second race, with Paraic Dooley taking the race win. Mark Hanna got off the line better this time and was involved in a great dice with Thomas Lawlor and Ronan Shanahan. I was right out at the back end of the circuit for this race, but passing me on the final lap Hanna was ahead of Lawlor and Shanahan.

The Lightweight and Moto3 races were also good entertainment. Randalstowns Nigel Percy was made work hard in both, but couldn’t match the outright speed of Adam McLean on Bob Wylies Moto3 bike. The race was red flagged when Kia McGreevy dropped his little Honda and was stuck underneath the bike in the gravel trap. There was more of the same in the second race, with Percy riding the wheels off his GP bike, but just not able to work with the 4 stroke machine. Ballymena’s Kirk Dickey was the first SS400 rider in both races.

The Superbikes races were both well worth the trip on their own. In the first David Haire, Nico Mawhinney and Damien Byrne were elbow to elbow for most of the race. With a couple of laps to go Haire was able to make a slight break, but still chased hard by Byrne while Mawhinney slipped back. To the best of my knowledge that was the way they finished. Mawhinney led the second race for the first couple of laps, until Haire slipped by. Then it was game over as the Lisburn man moved away from Nico while Damien Byrne settled for third place.

Kevin Keyes was in a class of his own in the 125GP Newcomers races. In the first he simply cleared off to win. Antrims Adam Simpson seemed to settle for second place at about half distance, with his bike obviously not handling properly.

In the second Simpson slipped off unhurt, leaving Keyes an easy win. Run concurrently with the GP125 Newcomers the 125 Production races both went to Richard Kerr. In his first season the Donegal lad has quickly found his feet and is beginning to push hard. He won both outings, the first from Edward Comerford and the second from Lee Bradshaw, who recovered from a slow start to move through the 
field.

Terry O’Reilly and Clive Russell won both sidecar races. Peter O’Neill and Jack Galligan were second both times and Lisburn man Scobby Killough, with Brian Butler in the chair, third.

The Supertwins class has really become one of the biggest, certainly at Mondello.

In the first race, Derek Wilson made the long trip from Bandon to take a win. He had a hard time with Korie McGreevy, but the experience of Wilson told the tale. These two had broken away from Trevor Elliott.

Paul Tobin ran out as winner in the second race, hitting the front in the early stages of the race. He was pressed hard by Wilson, Elliott and McGreevy. Ballynahinch youngster McGreevy overshot a corner and went into the gravel. He fell, but restarted the race. As far as I’m aware, the result gave Tobin a win from Wilson and Elliott.

Again, many apologies for not having accurate results.

ARMOY TV COVERAGE

The Armoy club have just had a timely boost ahead of their road race, which will be held on Friday 26th July and Saturday 27th.

They have just have signed a deal with Greenlight TV to provide coverage of the races, which will be broadcast in 2 one hour programmes on such channels as Eurosport, Fox Sports in Australia, Speed Channel in the USA, Sky Sports, Max Power on Channel 5 as well as Motorsport Mundial.

Bill Kennedy, Clerk of the Course for the race meeting said: “Gaining TV coverage was always high on the list of priorities for the club. On the back of last years TV coverage the club received emails from such places at Vietnam and Dubai.”

The Armoy club have always been forward thinking as regards publicity, and they have realised that with maximum publicity comes exposure for their title sponsors, RiverRidge Recycling. That in turn, makes them want to come back. I saw last year’s coverage and really enjoyed it, so I look forward to this year’s too.

THIS WEEKEND

This weekend the ISB action moves to Kirkistown when the Belfast & District club promote the 
meeting.

Practice is due to start at 9am with the first race at 1pm. Admission is £10 for adults with under 12’s going free.

Roy Adams