ROUNDS four, five and six of the Principal Insurance Mondello Masters took place over the Mondello Park circuit last weekend, where the most successful rider of the weekend was Oisin Maher with a total of six wins.
In the first of the Masters Superbike races, Brian McCormick took an early lead but was closely followed by Derek Sheils both on BMW machinery. These two had the race to themselves but by the end of lap 10 of 12, Sheils got to the front and went on to win. Emmett O’Grady held third place until the last lap when Peter Maloney just beat him to the flag to snatch third place. Shane Connelly finished fifth ahead of Daniel Matheson in sixth.
Race two was another victory for Sheils with McCormick leading on the opening five laps, but Sheils made his move to the front on lap six and controlled the race at the front to go on and win. O’Grady held on to third place after a race-long scrap with Maloney, Connelly was fifth and Matheson sixth.
McCormick finally tasted victory in a restarted six-lap race three after a red flag stoppage. Sheils led from the start until the halfway stage when he made a very uncustomary mistake and crashed out of the race uninjured. McCormick rode on to victory with O’Grady runner-up, Matheson took third followed home by Ronan Waters, Darren Tierney and Declan Madden.
Oisin Maher took his Honda to victory in race one of the Supersport class, easing away from his team mate Emmett O’Grady and winning by over 13 seconds at the flag. Brandon Kavanagh held third place throughout the race ahead of Gary Scott in fourth. James Walsh moved up to fifth place after passing Des Mackessy on lap 10 of the 12-lap race.
Maher had to work harder in race two, just holding off O’Grady by 0.154 of a second to win. Kavanagh was again third, Jack Whearty claimed fourth, Scott was fifth and Gary Reilly sixth.
Maher got his third class win in race three. He was strongly challenged by O’Grady, but nearing the final laps of the race Maher got the better of lapped riders to open a small gap going on to win. Whearty was third followed by Mackessy, Scott and Kavanagh.
The Supertwin races provided Maher with three easy wins aboard the VTL/TAG Racing Aprilia, followed home by Sean Brolly and Jason Whelan. Maher took race two again followed home by Brolly with Kelan Smith third, and the same man won race three from Brolly and Smith.
Ruben Sherman-Boyd won the opening Junior Support race from Alanna Maher and Joey Milliken. Fionn O’Connell, Joey Hennessy and Sherman-Boyd were top three in the combined Moto1 race. Boyd won supersport two race from Rhys Gates and Maher, while O’Connell took Moto1 race two from Fionn Stephens and Hennessy.
Boyd, Maher and Gates headed home Supersport race three, with O’Connell winning the final Moto1 race from Max Whearty and Mantas Siugzdinis.
Andrew Murphy took his Honda to three wins in the 400cc class. Ian Pendergast won two of the three combined Pre-Injection and Classic Superbike races, the other win going to Darryl Sharkey.
Graham Smallwoods won the opening Superbike/Supersport B race and the other two races were won by John Bryne. Darren O’Dwyer won two of the three sidecar races with Mark Codd claiming the third.
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