Bumper crowd enjoys fantastic racing at Mid-Antrim ‘150’

A few lap records, great racing, a branch falling off a tree across the road during practice, luckily when there was nothing coming, and even a bit of controversy thrown in. More on that later.

Early in the morning, it looked like the racing was going to be ruined when a rain started to move in, and indeed it’s possible that kept quite a few people away.

Those who made the effort were rewarded with an enjoyable day’s sport.

With a forecast of heavy rain moving in later in the day, Clerk of the Course Raymond Aitcheson decided to get on with the race programme and hold the parade laps back until later in the day.

The first race of the day was the Ballymena Borough Council sponsored Junior 250/350 Classic. It started on a track that was damp in places, especially through O’Haras farm and under the trees. Donabate man Sean Leonard held the lead as the bikes left the village on the first lap, followed by Glarryford man Barry Davidson, Allan Brew and big Herbie Ronan.

By the end of the opening circuit, though, Davidson, on his immaculately prepared Dempster Honda, had taken over the lead, and pulled away steadily, with the lower placings remaining similar until, with the fastest lap of the race, Manxman Brew got past Leonard on the final circuit. Davidson took the win, finishing over seven seconds ahead of Brew, while Sean Leonard had to settle for third place, just over a second adrift of the Ramsey man.

In the 250 class, Phil Shaw took his now customary race win, and tied up the Irish title in doing so. The Northumberland rider, in sixth place on the road, finished just over eight seconds ahead of Bryan Allan, while in third in the 250 category, Gary Hutton was about a minute back. The only local rider in this race was Barry Davidson. Despite winning, Barry had only the second fastest lap of the race, with a speed of 85.7mph.

As the second race, the Cleaning Doctor/Clough Vivo Senior Support, left on their warm up lap, the rain started to fall, and the CoC wisely decided that he would declare it a wet race, and give the riders a few minutes to change their tyres. Thankfully, as things turned out, that was the last rain we saw all day, as the track dried out quickly and we were treated to a brilliant race.

Rathkeale man Shane Egan held the advantage on the first lap as the riders exited Clough, and at the end of that lap, was ahead of Gavin Lupton, who was riding for the locally based S&D Racing team and Connor Behan.

Local rider Mark Hanna had made a bad start, and was working hard to try to regain some ground on the leaders. About the third lap, Behan dropped out of contention, apparently having overshot somewhere.

By this time, Mark Hanna had joined the leaders and with a series of fastest laps, moved ahead, breaking the lap record on his penultimate lap. His time was .8 faster than the old record, which had stood to Stephen McKnight since 2007.

At the finish, Mark Hanna, on his own Triumph 675, took the race win, by 2.9 seconds over Shane Egan. James Kelly, who was also inside the old lap record, just managed to hold off Gavin Lupton when the Englishman made a last lap challenge. There was just .2 between them.

Other than Mark Hanna, whose new lap record is 100.668mph, the only other local rider in the race was Galgorm’s Neil Kernohan. On an R6, previously campaigned by Sam Wilson, Neil finished in 6th place with a fastest lap of 95.695mph, very creditable in his first ever Mid Antrim.

Sponsored by American Crew, the first Open race was next up. Derek Sheils just held sway over Jamie Hamilton at Clough on the first lap, and despite repeated attempts, Hamilton could not make any kind of a pass on the Dublin man.

On the second lap, Derek McGee and Shaun Anderson fell together on the approach to Clough, though neither was injured, neither took any further part in the day’s racing. That had the effect of breaking up the leaders.

Sheils and Hamilton were then well away, while Seamus Elliott and Michael Sweeney were left to dispute the final step on the podium. Setting the fastest lap, Sheils moved away from Hamilton, taking the race win by just under nine seconds, while even though he was riding a 600cc bike against Superbikes, Elliott got the better of Micko Sweeney by .04 of a second to claim the last step on the podium.

Of the local men, Dennis Booth, from Kells and Randalstown’s Stephen McIlvenna, as they have done this last couple of meetings, chased each other in each time out. This time it was Booth who held sway, finishing in ninth place, just .6 ahead of Jack. Dennis’ fastest lap was 98.962mph, while Jack’s quickest speed was 98.493mph.

Supported by a number of local businesses, the next race was the Junior Support.

Connor Behan, riding for Ryan Farquhars KMR team, was the early leader, holding a narrow advantage over Mark Hanna and Shane Egan. On the next lap, Egan had been pushed back to fourth by Gavin Lupton. Luppy just couldn’t get on terms with the leaders and they pulled well ahead.

In the closing stages of the race, Hanna, on the Emerald Road Racing ER6, moved into the lead and despite Behan setting a new lap record on the last lap, some 9.5 seconds faster than the old one, the local rider held on to take his second race win of the day, by .1 of a second.

The top five riders were, in fact, inside the old record. Gavin Lupton finished on the bottom step of the podium, although well behind the top two.

Mark Hanna, obviously, was the best of the local, men, taking the race win and lapping at 100.897mph. Great credit though, to Neil Kernohan. On a 250 he finished in fourth place, lapping at 95.664mph.

Paul and Gary Hill, from Hill Contracts, were the backers of the next race, the Supersport 600. The first attempt was red flagged on the opening lap when Dutch rider Peter Heijmans fell just after Elders. I spoke to Peter on the phone on Sunday. His bike is wrecked and he has broken ribs and other cuts and bruises.

On the restart, Jamie Hamilton led, chased by Seamus Elliott. Elliott moved ahead on lap 3, by virtue of the fact that he clipped 1.6 seconds off Ryan Farquhars 2007 lap record, but next time round Hamilton was back in the lead, a position he never lost again. At the finish it was Hamilton who took the win, by 2.5 seconds. Ballymena’s Sam Wilson, 5.8 seconds further back, was third.

Sam was the best of the local riders, having a fastest lap of 106.754mph. Again the Booth/McIlvenna private race developed, this time Jack McIlvenna getting the better of it. he finished in ninth place on the road lapping at 101.240mph, while in 10th, Dennis Booth lapped at 100.662mph.

One of the Mid Antrim club’s longest-serving sponsors, Robert Logan Hardware, was the backer of the 125/Moto3/SS400/Moto450 race.

William Cowden fell in the village on the first lap, causing the red flags to come out, with Fivemiletown’s Warren Reeve in the lead. William was taken care of, he’s not badly injured.

Sam Wilson led at Clough Hairpin on the opening lap of five, but that was short lived when his little Honda cried enough just over halfway through the race.

By then, Paul Robinson had moved into the lead and had started to open a useful gap over Sam Dunlop. Sam had worked his way past Nigel Moore, who was safe in third place.

That was the finishing order, with Robinson winning by nearly 11 seconds, from Dunlop, who was 1.6 ahead of Moore at the finish.

Cullybackey man Mark McNeilly finished in sixth place. Mark was riding his own GP125 in the RT&E colours and had a quickest lap of 85.218mph.

Despite dropping out, Sam Wilson still registered the fastest lap of the race, with a speed of 93.677mph.

Setting a new lap record for the SS400 class, Gavin Lupton had a win here. Never seriously challenged, he brought his S&D backed Honda home over 45 seconds clear of Duleek man Mark Shiels, who was 3.5 in front of Wayne Hall.

Seamus Elliott romped away with the poorly supported Moto450 race. Thats not to say that he had it easy – in fact, he broke Ryan Farquhar’s year old lap record by 2.3 seconds. He was well ahead of Darren Gilpin and third placed Dave Walsh.

Jamie Hamilton wrapped up the Irish Supertwins title by taking a start to finish win in that class, which was sponsored by Emerald Road Racing magazine. He was never headed as he romped home 23.4 seconds ahead of William Davison, and breaking the lap record by over 5.2 seconds. A similar distance in arrears, Nigel Moore took a safe third place on John Burrows’ ER6.

We only had one local rider here. Mark McNeilly from Cullybackey finished in 18th place, on the Rathkenny Track and Enduro ER6. Mark had a fastest lap of 87.733mph.

Run concurrently with the Supertwins, the GP250 class went to Michael Sweeney. He had a hard time with Davy Morgan for much of the race, although the Saintfield man dropped back in the closing stages of the race.

Morgan was 5.5 seconds behind Micko at the finish, while Sam Dunlop took third, well back of Morgan.

A long time supporter of the Mid Antrim, The Clough Glasgow Rangers Supporters Club, backed the final Open race of the day.

Right from the start, it was clear that it was going to be between Jamie Hamilton and Derek Sheils. Both lapped inside the old lap record, with the new best time to Sheils, 1.8 faster than Ryan Farquhar’s previous best, set in 2007.

In the closing stages of the race, however, both riders tangled and went down when lapping tailenders. Neither was injured, but it caused the red flags to come out.

As per MCUI rules, the result is taken from the last lap completed, and the person or people who caused the red flag excluded.

Micko Sweeney, who had been running in a steady third place, was happy to be declared the winner, with Davy Morgan promoted to runner-up. Seamus Elliott, on his 600 Yamaha, finished in third place, again the best of the 600 bikes.

The result gave Sweeney the coveted Man of the Meeting awards as well. Dennis Booth, in eighth place, finished .6 of a second ahead of Jack McIlvenna here. Den had a fastest lap of 100.320mph, while ‘Jack’s quickest was 100.079mph.

The final race of the day was the Peoples Senior Classic. This one went to John Scott, after Robert McCrum was forced out on the final lap. McCrum, who had set a new lap record, looked to have the race sewn up, but his big Weslake had other ideas.

It left Scotty 15.6 seconds ahead of Marty Lyons, who in turn was little over half a second ahead of Gary Jamison at the line.

Great credit must go to the Mid Antrim club members, and in particular Raymond Aitcheson, for the way they worked together to get the racing finished.

They had a late start, through one thing and another, but they entire club worked hard and fired the races through in near record time, despite a couple of red flag incidents. Thankfully nobody was seriously injured.

My personal thinks to all concerned for the hospitality and the craic after the racing ended.

Roy Adams

* Don’t miss this week’s Ballymena/Antrim Times for top photographic coverage from Clough.