COVERAGE BY GORDON WILLIAMS
JOHNNY Campbell became the new King of Kirkistown series leader while Christian Elkin moved to the top of the Crown Prince rankings as the Belfast and District Motor Club hosted round four of this year’s Ulster Superbike Championship on Saturday.
The event incorporated the second round of the Belfast club’s Charles Hurst Motorcycle Village Big 3 Championship.
From the start of the first King of Kirkistown Superbike race, Ballynahinch native Korie McGreevey took the McAdoo Kawasaki into the lead closely followed by Ross Irwin on the Magic Bullet Honda and Ryan Gibson on the Gibson Bros BMW. At the mid-race distance, Gibson moved to the front but overdid the braking at the hairpin, crashing out unhurt.
Irwin also made a big mistake which saw him drop down to the back of the field with McGreevey back in the lead.
Jonny Campbell was now second and at the end of lap seven he hit the front, going on to win the race. Aaron Spence came home third followed by Dean Campbell and Aaron McBride and Kevin Lavery climbed through the field to snatch sixth place on the last lap from Rossi Dobson.
In race two, Gibson made amends for his first race mishap, leading Campbell up to the end of lap seven before, on the penultimate lap, Campbell got into the lead. But he could not hold on and Gibson won the race on the dash to the line by a mere 0.130 of a second. Irwin and McMaster fought it out over third place until Irwin finally pulled clear, Spence overtook McMaster on the final lap to take fourth place with Lavery again in sixth.
McGreevey won the opening Crown Prince of Kirkistown Supersport race on the McAdoo Kawasaki, leading all the way ahead of Christian Elkin. Campbell held third place early on but slipped down the field with mechanical problems on his machine. This promoted Andrew Smyth up to third place which he held to the finish.
Mark Conlin brought the NRG Ducati home fourth, Caornhan Canny was fifth and Lee Hara sixth.
McGreevey was a non-starter in race two, leaving Elkin to take the lead and control the race from the front, coming home to win from Campbell. Over the final two laps Conlin managed to get past Smyth to secure third place, Canny was fifth and Hara sixth.
Elkin won the President’s Cup combined Supertwin/Pre Injection race one, heading Caolan Irwin and Dean McMaster with Pre-Injection winner Michael Carr finishing in fourth place followed home by Steven Love and Trevor Elliott. Race two also went to Elkin from Irwin and McMaster, with Pre Injection winner Carr fourth, Love fifth and Elliott sixth.
Newtownards man Andy Kidea took his Honda to victory in the first Classic race from Malcolm Love and Linton Irwin. Ian Thompson was fourth, George Stinson fifth and Brian Mateer in sixth. Edwin Gilmore led race two but lost the lead to Kildea on lap five, before disaster struck for Kildea on the final lap as he stopped with electrical problems. Gilmore went on to win with Thompson second followed by Love, Irwin, Stinson and Mateer.
Isaac Mark and Joe Hennassy fought out two exciting Moto1 races, ending with a win each. Hubert Tomaszewski was third in both races.
Alexander Rowan won both Moto3 races from Matt Davidson and Robert O’Neill and Ruben Sherman Boyd won both 300 Supersport races on the Road Racing Ireland Kawasaki from Bailey Dobson and Matthew Watson. Graham McAllese took both Lightweight Supersport races.
Conor McDonnell won both combined Superbike/Supersport Cup races, the first from Almantas Montvilas and Damien Horan and the second from Michael Clyde and Nicky Burns.
