A LARGE crowd of spectators were treated to some very exciting racing across all the classes as the Irish Minibike Championship kicked off at Kirkistown on Saturday.
Most of the racing ran over a drying track after a few heavy showers, but thankfully the organisers kept things running like clockwork and got all the races completed.
Jake O’Sullivan proved unbeatable in the senior stock group one class and claimed wins in all three races. He took the opener from Jason Floody and Patrick Dagger, Matty Brown forced Floody to settle for third in race two, with Colin Gordon second in race three from Floody.
Andrew Willis took race one in the group two class from Brian McGeough and Adam Lee McStravog. Michael McAllister won race two from Willis and James Harkness and Willis completed a double, winning the third race from McAllister and McGeough.
The junior elite class saw three different winners in each race. Lewis Mullan won the first race from Buster Sherman Boyd and Joel Haire, Ciara Cahoon took race two from Boyd and Haire and Boyd claimed victory in the last race from Haire and Riley Brown.
Nathan Ingram was a double winner in the senior open class. He finished second in the opening race behind winner Ruben Sherman Boyd and in front of Joe Quinn, and took the win in race two from Quinn and Paul Graham, finishing the day winning race three from Christopher McCallion and Boyd.
In the first of the junior gearbox races, Cahal Casey took the win from Zak Turkington and Cian Daly. Casey also took race two from Daly and Paige Mullan with Daly claiming top step on the podium in race three from Turkington and Casey.
Sean O’Neill won the opening veterans race from Mark Todd and Dinny Collins. Todd took race two from David Finnerty and Colin Gordon with the third race producing the same top three.
Alfie Flynn completed a triple in the Mini GP class with Buster Sherman Byd runner-up in all three races. Hubert Tomaszewski finished third in the first two races with Leon Simpson third in race three.
Cody Brennan won race one in the Bam Bam class from Ben Finnerty and Cody Morris. Brennan also won race two, again from Finnerty with Patrick Dagger third. The final race gave Brennan three wins from Finnerty and Freddie Irwin, son of BSB star Glen Irwin who was giving some fantastic encouragement at trackside.