COVERAGE BY GORDON WILLIAMS
SATURDAY heralded the penultimate round of the Ulster Superbike Championship at Bishopscourt.
The opening Superbike race at the Enniskillen and District Club meeting had to be red flagged early due to a heavy crash for Ryan Gibson on the Firewood Supplies BMW. From the restart Andy Reid took the JMcC Roofing Kawasaki into an early lead followed by Korie McGreevey on the McAdoo Kawasaki and Ross Irwin on the Magic Bullet Honda.
Jonny Campbell was in fourth place followed by Aaron McBride and Daly Matheson. By mid-race Reid had opened a comfortable gap at the front of the field but the battle for second place still raged.
Irwin moved past McGreevey into second place but a lap later dropped back to fourth after making a mistake. With two laps to go Campbell took the Magic Bullet Yamaha into second place but he could not hold off a late challenge from McGreevey who re-took second position behind winner Reid.
Irwin finished fourth, McBride fifth and Matheson sixth.
Race two was a closer affair. McGreevey led for the opening four laps before Reid managed to pass him and take the lead on lap five. Gibson was third, Irwin fourth, Campbell fifth and Armstrong in sixth.
The lead bunch were close together separated by a second and by lap six McGreevey was back in front but under pressure from the pack. With two laps to go Gibson moved into second place past Reid and he was closing on leader McGreevey. Campbell passed Irwin into fourth place.
At the flag McGreevey just held on to win from Gibson by only 0.262 of a second, Reid was third, Campbell fourth, Irwin fifth and McBride sixth. Two fourth place finishes clinched the Ulster Superbike title for Lisburn man Jonny Campbell.
Marc Conlin was the surprise winner of the opening Supersport race. On lap four Campbell led, before McGreevey got back in front followed by Conlin on the NRG Ducati. Andrew Smyth was fourth, Andrew Whearty fifth and James Doy in sixth.
It was anyone’s race come the final lap, but disaster ensued with both leaders crashing out of the race which had to be red flagged. Results were declared after nine complete laps with victory going to Conlin, Smyth second and Whearty third. Kevin Lavery improved to finish fourth followed by Doy and Ross Moore.
McGreevey made no mistake in race two, taking the lead from the start and going on to win by over six seconds from Conlin. Christian Elkin eventually chased down Smyth to claim third place, Lavery was fifth and Whearty moved through the field to finish sixth.
In the combined Super Twin and Pre-Injection classes, Michael Carr won the opening race after early leader Elkin retired his Supertwin machine. Steven Love just held off Johnny Irwin to take second place, Kyle Cross was fourth, Robert Waddell fifth and Paul Dermaine sixth.
Cross fought his way through the field to snatch victory in race two on the final lap from Carr. Waddell was third, Caomlan Canny fourth and followed home by Dermot Cleary and Jonathan Gregory.
Almantis Montvilas won the first Superbike/Supersport B race from Jonathan Gregory and Ian Whearty. Tam Oliver took race two from Gregory and Montvilas.
In the combined Lightweight Supersport/Supersport 300/and Moto3 races Graham McAleese made it a double from Nicky Burns. Mark Allen was third in race one and Chris Gray third in race two.
Ruben Sherman Boyd won both Supersport 300 races from Bailie Dobson and Rory Creith, while Barry Davidson and Lee Hara won a race each in the Moto3 class.
Isaac Mark won both the Moto 1 races from Hubert Tomaszewski and Matthew Curry, Ardsman Andy Kildea won both Classic Superbike races and Mark Johnston took the 500cc class wins.
Nigel Moore and Kyle Parkes shared the 350 cc honours. Malcolm Love and Brian Matthews were winners of the 250cc class races.
