Locals put their pedal to the metal at Desertmartin

In the Premier Classes, stand outs are John Meara from Loughbrickland who finished a fine third overall on the day on the TMC Honda, showing remarkable speed on his first year on the bigger bike.

Reigning Veterans Champion Jonathan Fairley from Waringstown found the going tough at the rough circuit, particularly as he lost a big toe nail during the day taking weight loss to ridiculous lengths!!!

In the Premier MX2 Class our only representative was Jason Meara, the 15 year from Loughbrickland old spent the day crashing unfortunately, but his speed and talent are there to be seen, maybe a calmer approach would help the TMC Honda teamster, however, fifth overall is a good result in his first year in the Premier Class, but he will be disappointed I’m sure.

Semi Expert Classes qualifying left Mark Dynes topping the timing sheet, but unfortunately Waringstown’s Ray Brownlee & Kilmore’s Laurence Ruddock were heading for the Non Qualifiers races, squeezed out by the hordes of fast teenagers who dominate this class. Mark was joined in qualifying by Ashfield’s Anthony Lyle and Loughbrickland perennial favourite, Cliffy Bailey.

Mark had a torrid day, leading races and crashing or stalling out, however, he finished all three races in the points, and should be well in the hunt when the hard pack tracks come around, particularly at next week’s Irish Championship round at Tandragee. Anthony struggled with his new bike on the rough circuit, citing lack of bike time for his below par performance.

Cliffy meanwhile fought with the youngsters and finished a fine 10th overall on his immaculate Yamaha 250 two stroke, again, hard pack would be Cliffy’s favourite surface, so this result should please the Loughbrickland veteran.

In the Clubmans MX2, North Armagh members performed superbly, with Magheralin’s Chris Simms, Banbridge’s Scott Bailey and Rathfriland’s Samuel Curran all qualifying comfortably from the 80+ entries.

Chris finished the day runner up overall, 10 points behind Chris Eccles with two seconds and a fourth on the Allen’s Plant Hire Honda, and youngster Scott finished fourth overall on the day. Samuel unfortunately ended the day in hospital after a nasty crash on the big downhill on the last lap of his last race of the day, get well soon Samuel.