Supermoto series gets underway

The first round, due to have been held last Saturday was cancelled after insufficient entries had been received by the organisers.

After all Friday's rain, the track was wet for practice and the early races, but quickly dried out to give us some brilliant racing. Quite wisely, the organisers have done away with the Joker idea, as there are only two rounds of this year's series.

In the Prestige class, not too surprisingly, David Farmer ran out as the overall winner, taking three race wins from three starts. Farmer had to work hard in the first race, overcoming a slow start to grab the lead by halfway.

Farmer was 3 seconds ahead of James McClelland at the line, with Philip Wylie third, over 5 seconds adrift.

In race two there was more of the same, with Farmer repeating his win over McClelland, this time by nearly 4 seconds. Double Irish Supersport 600 champion Glenn Irwin, riding a bike borrowed from Matt Bosanko and in his first ever Supermoto event, took a useful third place, although well back. He led a group of 4 riders home, separated by just 2.4 seconds.

Farmer upped the winning margin in the third race, winning by over 4 seconds here. Again McClelland was second and Irwin third, although the Carrickfergus rider was quite a bit closer this time.

David Farmer leads the series now, on a maximum score of 75 points. James McClelland is second on 66, while Glenn Irwin holds third on 55.

The Clubmans class provided us with some great racing. Grabbing the lead more or less from the start of the first race, it was Gareth Knox who took the first win of the year. He finished .4 of a second ahead of Barry Murphy.

The top two had opened a fair lead over another great race, this time involving Rodney Reid and young Josh Cunningham from Dromore. Cunningham missed out on a podium in his first ever Supermoto race by just .2 of a second.

The top two reversed their first race places in the second outing. Murphy won, finishing just .1 of a second ahead of Knox. A carbon copy of the first race, there was .2 of a second between Rodney Reid and Josh Cunningham, yet again the Dromore lad having to give best. Gareth Knox had another race in the finsl event. This time there was .3 separating him and Barry Murphy.

Josh Cunningham got his revenge on Rodney Reid, finishing some 9 seconds ahead. In the overall championship positions, its is Gareth Knox who tops the table, his 72 points just 3 better than Barry Murphy. Rodney Reid is third on 58.

I have to admit to being a great fan of quad racing.

On Saturday morning, when the track was wet, they were awesome to watch, sliding full broadside with smoke pouring off their tyres.

Newtownards man Justin Reid had a clean sweep in the quad events. In the first he was pressed all the way by Mark Donnelly. Reid, a former British Quad Champion, had a sluggish getaway, but soon hit the front, holding on to win by .1 of a second from Donnelly. Portadown man Mark Troughton finished third, nearly 4 seconds back.

It was again Reid in the second race, again Donnelly forcing the issue with him. At the line, it was Reid who won, this time by .2 of a second, while Troughton was third over 8 seconds off the pace. Unusually, there was almost exactly the same result in the third race, with Reid winning by .4 of a second from Donnelly. Troughton took third over 8 seconds back. Obviously, Justin Reid heads the points table on 75 points. Mark Donnelly is second on 66 while Mark troughton is third on 60.

In the two knockout races, the idea is that the last four or five riders drop out after the end of 2 laps. The race is then re-started, with the same thing over again until the top three are found. David Farmer and Justin Reid didnt allow the form book to be upset here, both winning their respective classes.

It’s a great pity that the rest of the supermoto series is to be limited to a single round. The first round was cancelled due to the organisers not having enough entries to make it financially viable.

There was to have been a meeting at Nutts Corner on the 13th November, on the original track, that is used for kart racing now, but that has been done away with. Pity. Ten minutes from home!

The final round of the series is to be at Kirkistown on the 29th November. More on that in a week or two. I understand that there are a couple of well known riders entered for the last meeting.

SLEMISH TRIAL

The Mid Antrim club held their Slemish Trial on Saturday, on the side of the famous local mountain.

With the weather having been so bad on Friday, the sections were slippery and treacherous, but that didn’t put the riders off, with some personally pleasing results being arrived at.

Harold McQuaid ran out as the winner, his score of 15 penalties being 22 better than that of Sean Doyle.

Mid Antrim clubmember William Dickey took a fairly comfortable win in the B Grade. William finished on 33, his nearest rival, Gilford's Jonny Lunney dropping 49. Former Irish champion Philip Hanlon took third, going down 63.

Philip's nephew Stuart Hanlon won the C Grade, finishing the day for a loss of 18. Stephen Pyper, on 21 was second and John Heenan third on 46. In the D Grade, the overall winner proved to be Russell Houston, who went down 13 marks. George Smyth and David Gault tied for second place, with the verdict going to Smyth, by virtue of him having 32 cleans to the 30 of Gault.

As I mentioned last week, due to the severity of the terrain on Slemish, there was only Grades A and B catered for. Chris Brown won the A Grade, finishing 6 marks better than the 34 of Stuart McClurg. Michael Fay and Ashley Turner dead heated in the B Grade.

It took a tie break to sort them out, with the win going to Fay. He had 30 cleans to the 29 of Turner.

The fourth round of the Irish championship, the McParland Cup, will be held this Saturday, and will be the responsibilty of the Lisburn club. Its due to start at 10.30am. Its to be held on the side of Slieve Croob, just outside Finnis, Dromara.

FARQUHAR SPONSORSHIP?

A wee birdy tells me that Ryan Farquhar, arguably the Province’s top road racer, has been offered a decent sponsorship deal.

The deal, which comes from Cookstown furniture components company BA Kitchens, will see Ryans bikes run in their old colours. BA, apparently, were great backers of car rallying, but have decided to move into bikes. Wise people, then.

I would imagine that the deal might see Ryan back at the Cookstown 100 next year. You might remember that he had a very public falling out with the Cookstown club this year, and is on record as having said that he would only race at the meetings that had been good to him.

There has been no official word on the deal yet, but its pretty much done and dusted, I understand.