ROUND 2 PREVIEW -SEAFORDE ‘GRAND PRIX’ RETURNS

The fast hillside hard pack of Seaforde awaits the protagonists for Round 2 of the fastest off road series in Ireland when the Quads and Sidecars descend on Saturday 25th March for the Killinchy Club hosted event.

The Premier Quad Class threw up a surprise result at Desertmartin in Round 1 when Limavady man Michael McAneney swept to a treble victory to lead the Championship over English visitor Carl Bunce, with reigning Champ Justin Reid from Comber third and British Champion Mark McLernon fourth after complaining of a down on power engine.

McAneney has always been fast, but has been plagued with unreliability for the past few seasons, but in his own words, it all clicked at the Desert so he arrives at the vastly different surface at Seaforde leading the Championship.

It was an altogether different affair in the Clubmans class, with Sean McNicholl running out the overall victor, but double race winner Connor Canning can feel hard done by after a dnf on race 1 ruined his day dropping him to 4th overall, young Youth British Champion Dean Dillon from Hillsborough showed impressive from on his adult debut to finish second overall only 5 points adrift of McNicholl, and Tommy O’Donnell rounded out the podium.

The Sidecars produced another overall win for Lisburn crew Neil Campbell & Craig Parmenter, but that hides an impressive race 2 win from Gary Moulds and Steve Kirwin, who dealt Campbell his first on track defeat in over two years, however, a crash in race 3 injured Kirwin and Gary managed 2ndoverall, just ahead of big sister Emma with Niki Adair on board who showed impressive speed, although harassed by Dean Faulkner & Gordon Ringland throughout.

The Youth 25occ Quad races were dominated by Alfie Walker on his Honda, with a second and two wins, but Jack Young showed good speed to nearly match walker to finish runner up only 3 points adrift, while Adam Blakeley rounded out the podium.

In the extremely competitive 100cc class, Andrew Black completed the treble to lead Jordan Wright by 11 points, with Aimee Willis in third; a good turnout in this class saw some great racing down the field all day.

Leading the 50cc Class is last year’s Champion, Travis Toye on his Apache, with little Adrian McVey second on his Buzz, with Dollingstowns Jacob Glenn third on his Suzuki.

Racing will start at 11.00 on Saturday at Seaforde Motocross Park, signposted off the main Newcastle Rd near the Butterfly House. Images Credit - Paul Ervine Photography