Wray wraps up a hat-trick on grass

THE opening round of the Watt Motorcycles Grasstrack Championship kicked off in style on Saturday with a fantastic entry of competitors alongside a great crowd at the new Dalway's Bawn circuit, at Carrickfergus.
By The Newsroom
Published 26th Apr 2010, 12:51 BST
Updated 26th Apr 2010, 19:37 BST

Going into the first round, the battle for the quad championship was looking like it was a two man-race between David Wray and Michael McAnaney, so as the gate dropped all eyes turned to these two. Wray did not disappoint, sealing a hat-trick of race wins on the day. Johnny Kelly on the 480cc KTM grabbed second ahead of Watt Motorcycles-backed McAnaney.

Quite possibly the best sound of the day was Charles Stewart’s 250 KTM around the Dalway’s Bawn as he easily cruised to three-out-of-three race wins in the much anticipated two-stroke class. Second overall was Ricky Watt on the 500cc Crockard Honda, followed by Wicklow rider Mervyn Griffin, also on a 500c Honda.

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John Guy leads the veteran championship by five points, despite slipping off the Bodytech Honda near the end of the third race. Unable to capitalise on John’s mistake, Michael McBride took second, closely followed by Paul McGuire, who lies just two points behind in third.

The newly formatted Grade C Open class, which is open to all capacity of bike, is led by Darren Beattie from Comber, ahead of KTM rider Gary Bell. After a below-par first race, Graeme Jellie recovered with second and third place finishes to take him within three points of Bell in the championship.

The line-up for the expert race boasted some fantastic racing from the grade A and B competitors. Tommy Merton on the Monster Energy/Watt Kawasaki held on for the first race win, despite TSR/Watt KTM’s Wayne Garrett producing a late charge for the lead. Richard Bird (GOMX/Watt KTM) put in a professional performance to take race two from Garrett and Merton and the final race saw Garrett take the Holeshot and lead to the flag, while the bar-to-bar racing was happening behind him; Neil Thompson reaching the line before Drew for second.

Garrett now leads the championship from Bird by 13 points; behind them Neil Thompson sits a further nine points after that fantastic third-race result.

The next round of the championship will take place on Wednesday, June 9 at Loughside Farm, Islandmagee.

Related topics:Carrickfergus