Motorcycling again plunged into mourning after weekend tragedy

A father of two, he won the Support B race at Cookstown just the previous weekend, and actually missed Tandragee last year, due to the birth of his young son.

Noel was a near neighbour of Martin Finnegan, who also died at Tandragee in 2008. The incident took place just after Castle Corner, on the fast section towards Cooley Crossroads. Better known as Smurf, he lost his life on the final lap of the Junior Support race.

It would be normal to abandon an event after such an accident, but it was the wish of Noels father and partner Lana, that the meeting continued. Many competitors chose to withdraw as a mark of respect, however.

With the forecast of bad weather on the Saturday, the Clerk of the Course, RJ Woolsey decided that he would run a race on the Friday night, after practice. The race got under way just after 8.45pm as the light started to drop dramatically. On the third lap of the scheduled four, a particularly nasty accident left Jamie Coward in hospital with a broken leg. The race was red flagged and the result given after two laps.

It gave a win to circuit newcomer Dan Kneen. The Manxman, riding for John Burrows, took the lead right from the start. At the end of the opening lap he was chased across the line by Derek McGee, Jamie Hamilton and William Dunlop. Kneen had opened almost a full second of a lead at the end of the second lap, with McGee pushing him hard. When the red flags were displayed the official difference was .9 of a second. McGee, in turn, was a further .7 ahead of Hamilton.

Mark Hanna was the best local rider, finishing in 11th place. He had a fastest lap of 100.7mph. Next best was Stephen McIlvenna from Randalstown. Jack finished in 15th place, having lapped at 97.6mph, while Dennis Booth was 19th on his R6. Den had a quickest lap of 97.6mph as well.

The first race on Saturday morning saw Keith Amor take an early lead. He was hounded by Derek McGee and William Dunlop, while Ballymena’s Sam Wilson headed the B Group. Dunlop moved to second by virtue of setting the fastest lap of the race, on lap five, while he squeezed into the lead on the last lap. He beat Amor, in his first race at Tandragee since 2009, into second place by only .1 of a second. Derek McGee finished in third place, some 5.5 seconds adrift.

Sam Wilson was the best local finisher. The Ballymena rider was the best B Group finisher, and lapped at 100.3mph on his way to 10th place overall. Jack McIlvenna was 18th with a lap of 100.3mph, while Dennis Booth lapped at 98.3mph on his way to 23rd position. Mark Hanna was listed as a retirement on the second lap.

The ill fated Junior Support race was next. Skerries rider Derek Costello led from the start. Recovering from a slow start, Armoys Tommy Henry steadily climbed up the order until he was pressuring Costello for the lead. When the red flags went out there was just 1.8 seconds separating the Costello and Henry, while Mick Jordan was a bike length ahead of Noel Bertram.

Our only local rider was 250GP mounted Neil Kernohan, from Galgorm. Despite dropping a lot of time on the opening lap when he took to the grass at Marlacoo, Neil finished in 6th place, with a fastest lap of 93.4mph.

After the incident and stewards meetings, it was requested by the Murphy family that racing recommence. All races were reduced to 3 laps, although as a mark of respect many riders chose not to take part.

The feature race of the day, the Tandragee 100 event, was next. Michael Sweeney led at Marlacoo on the first lap, but it wasn’t long till Dan Kneen took over. Kneen pulled ahead, opening up a gap of 2.8 seconds at the finish. Banbridge’s Shaun Anderson finished in second place, in front of a good dice involving Davy Morgan and Micko Sweeney. Morgan took third by .1 of a second.

The Classic race was next. Right from the start Ryan Farquhar, on the 500 Paton, hit the front. Robert McCrum had no answer to Farquhar, who took the race win by almost 24 seconds, with McCrum second. Gary Jamison was third. The only local rider was Glarryford man Barry Davidson, who finished ion 6th position on the road. Barry was the best 350cc rider, with a quickest lap of 83.4mph. Phil Shaw, in 11th was the best 250.

Paul Robinson won the 125 race, after having to come from behind his cousin Sam Dunlop. Robinson moved away from a good race for the lower places involving Paul Jordan and Nigel Moore. Jordan took second, 2.3 seconds behind Robinson, but .4 ahead of Moore. Run concurrently with the 125’s, Paddy McColgan was the winner of the SS400 race. Riding Stephen Shortt’s 400 Honda, McColgan steadily opened up a gap of over 10 seconds a lap on Paul Maguire. Better known as Barney, Brian McLoughlin finished in a creditable third place. The only Moto450 to finish was Ryan Farquhar.

Very light rain started to fall before the Senior Support race. Right from the start it was Stockton-on-Tees man Tom Robinson who shot into a lead. It wasn’t long before Robinson dropped second man Neil Lyons and moved away to win by 28.7 seconds. Rodney Little, from Bangor was third.

Neil Kernohan was our only local rider to take part here. He took a great fourth place on a GP bike, which was spinning the rear wheel on the wet road towards the end of the race. Neils fastest lap was 89.9mph.

The final race of the day was the 250GP and Supertwins event. The Supertwins was won by Connor Behan. He was 10.6 ahead of Stephen McKnight, the Banbridge man being a similar distance in front of Ian Morrell at the finish. The only other finisher was Dan Kneen. Likewise, there were only 4 GP250 finishers as well. Michael Sweeney just managed to hold off John Ella, who had come back to within .4 of a second after a slow start. Sam Dunlop took third and Paul Robinson fourth.

Dan Kneen was awarded the Man of the Meeting, and dedicated it to the memory of Noel Murphy.

THIS WEEKEND

This weekend the action moves to Mondello Park when the ISB championship resumes.

All championship classes will be catered for, with obviously the main focus of attention being on the Superbike and Supersport 600 championship races.

Cody Nally tops the Superbike table, with four wins and seven podiums out of a possible eight, with David Haire a close second.

Haire leads the Supersport class, with five wins from six rounds, although Carl Phillips is still far from out of it.