BY GORDON WILLIAMS
KORIE McGreevy shone in the Kirkistown sun on Saturday as the McAdoo Racing Kawasaki rider claimed a hat-trick of wins during the eighth round of the Ulster Superbike Championship.
At the Belfast and District club’s meeting, also incorporating the third and final round of their Charles Hurst Big 3 Series, Ballynahinch man McGreevy’s fine treble featured a pair of Superbike victories as well as a win in the Supersport class on his way to taking the ‘Crown Prince of Kirkistown’ title.
Carrickfergus’ Ross Irwin was crowned the ‘King of Kirkistown’ after finishing ahead of Magic Bullet rider Jonny Campbell in the series standings while the President’s Cup went to double Supertwin winner Christian Elkin.
In the opening ‘King of Kirkistown’ Superbike race, Ryan Gibson took his BMW into the lead over the opening two laps, but soon found himself in a battle with McGreevy who moved in front on lap six.
Gibson made a late breaking move at the hairpin on lap seven but was unsuccessful and had to run wide, dropping him down to fourth place.
Irwin managed to take the lead on lap eight but McGreevey got back to the front on the penultimate lap to close out the win with Campbell third, Gibson fourth and Aaron McBride just holding off Rossi Dobson for fifth place.
Gibson and McGreevey again swapped the lead in race two with the latter holding on to win by nearly two seconds. Gibson was in second place with two laps to go but on the final lap both Campbell and Irwin got past him and on the dash to the line Irwin took second with Campbell third and Gibson fourth. Dobson finished fifth and Daniel Mathison was sixth.
The opening ‘Crown Prince’ Supersport race was declared null and void due to a technical issue with the starting lights. McGreevey controlled the second race from the front after retaking the lead from Marc Conlin, while Christian Elkin, Jonny Campbell and Andrew Smyth were having a close race for third place until Smyth crashed out on lap seven uninjured. At the flag Elkin was third, Campbell fourth, Lee Hara fifth and James Doy a splendid sixth.
Tam Oliver won the opening Superbike/Supersport Cup race from Evan Grier and Dean Graham, with Mark Moore taking race two from Oliver and Grier.
Ardsman Andy Kildea took his Honda to overall victory in both Classic races, Mark Johnston won both 350cc races and Bangor’s Andy McAllister triumphed in the opening 500cc race as Sean Leonard won the second. Phillip Shaw meanwhile took his Suzuki to 250cc class wins.
The President’s Cup combined Supertwin and Pre Injection classes saw Christian Elkin on the RB Engineering Kawasaki beat Caolan Irwin on the RK Racing Aprilia in both races with Robert Waddell third.
Michael Carr won both Pre Injection races from Trevor Elliott and Paul Dermaine. Isaac Mark made it a Moto1 race double, winning both from Joe Hennassy and Hubert Tomaszeski.
Alexander Rowan won both Moto 3 races, with Alan Mairs claiming a Lightweight Supersport double. Buster Sherman-Boyd was unbeatable in the two 300cc class races, winning from Bailey Dobson and Matthew Watson.
