He was bitten with the racing bug that day, but it wasn’t until he went to Australia with his fiancée, Caroline, later in the year that he discovered a natural flair for handling a bike around a race track.

    “My first race was at Aghadowey,” said Kieran, “a friend, Alan Armstrong and I took our two road bikes. I used my 750 Turbo Kawasaki and finished fourth. It was just one race and after that we went to Australia - the visa came through so I just went off.”

    As simply as that Kieran found himself in New South Wales with the woman who would later become his wife, and started to work driving construction machinery.

    Naturally it wasn’t long before the racing bug renewed its bite and Kieran got talking to a fellow biker who told him about the racing scene in Oz.

    He joined Ryde District Motorcycle Club in Sydney, got a racing licence and entered his first races using a 750 Turbo Kawasaki similar to the one he had left at home.

    “I won five races on the first day, but my results were disallowed because of the rules - turbo bikes had to double their capacity so mine was the equivalent of 1,500 cc. It was only a club racing meeting and they wanted to check the bike as I’d won five races on the same day - that’s when I found out that the bike wasn’t eligible,” said Kieran.

    Although the results did not stand due to the unwitting rule infringement McGrory had made an impact on the Sydney scene and knew he could be competitive.

    He bought a second hand race-prepared Suzuki GSXR 750 through one of the local papers and entered an inter-club challenge event at Oran Park as a novice racing at Grade D in the Australian system.

    Two victories that day meant novice status could not last long - at the next meeting, also at Oran Park, Kieran was first past the chequered flag and his racing licence was upgraded to C.

    A broken kneecap following a fall at Amaroo Park kept him on the pit wall for the next three months but Kieran was fit in time for the national C Grade meeting, the Stars of Tomorrow event at Philip Island. The ageing Suzuki was not competitive at the sharp end of the field on the fast, open track and his seventh place was as good as could have been expected.

    Back at the scene of his earlier accident Kieran and the Suzuki won three races at an open meeting and a couple of months later they dominated at the same track, beating more experienced and better funded bike and rider combinations. The run of good results brought McGrory to the attention of the Grading Committee once again and he was moved up to B, something that many riders spend years trying to achieve. Kieran had done it in less than 12 months, which included a three month injury enforced absence.

    1991 was not so successful as the Suzuki could not hold its own in the more competitive company of A and B Grade riders, and armed with advice from his friend Mick Downey, McGrory resolved to go for quicker machinery and move his career up a gear.

    “I decided to change the bike because the Suzuki wasn’t competitive so I bought an RC 30 Honda and started to do the Australian national series. Mick helped me prepare it: new foot pegs, new wiring loom, ride height adjusters and he also removed all the unnecessary weight. Mick then travelled with us to most of the races and did the mechanical work,” Kieran said.

    A week at the Wayne Gardner Masterclass of Road Racing Course proved a worthwhile investment as McGrory learned the theory of racing and cornering technique to support his natural instincts, and the praise of the master: Gardner spoke highly of Kieran’s smooth lines and professional approach.

    Kieran takes up the story of the 1992 season: “It started off well, we got up to the mid-field pace and by the second or third round a few boys noticed me and Honda gave me brakes and forks for the bike. I was top privateer for quite a few rounds until a crash dropped me a few points and I ended up third privateer at the end of the year.”

    His ability to hold his own against factory backed machinery and a unique high speed, wheel sliding, cornering technique earned McGrory the nickname ‘Mad Irishman’ from the spectators and Australian specialist press.

    Mixing it with the national (as opposed to club level) riders and getting good quality advice from the Winfield Race Team, which also lent him some parts, was good for Kieran’s pace and when the Superbike series visited his home track at Sydney he clocked lap times four seconds quicker than his previous best.

    But it wasn’t all plain sailing and the need to push harder to stay on the pace of the always developing factory bikes meant a fall while challenging for fourth place at Waneroo in Western Australia. 12th in the series, a hot reputation (Mad Irishman) and winning all three rounds of the State F1 Championship was the final result for the year’s efforts.

    “We did the Superbikes again 1993,” said Kieran, “but it didn’t go as well the second year. The bike wasn’t competitive enough and I crashed a few times. There was the budget too, it takes an enormous amount of money and time to do the travelling, it takes 16 hours non stop to get to some races. We came back home again the following year because I couldn’t get the residency. Then the bike came later that year so I didn’t race much as the van and bike (the Honda RC 30) were in transit and didn’t arrive until August ‘94.”

    Caroline, bike and himself safely back at Lisnaskea, Kieran soon settled in to short circuit racing on home shores with second place in the 1995 Irish Open Short Circuit championship his reward for a year of consistent performances.

    In 1996 McGrory was a top five regular on the RC30 and won a round at Mondello, but the march of technology forced another change of machinery for the ‘97 Regal series and the result was ninth and best newcomer.

    Now on a Suzuki he improved on the Regal placing in 1998, the year Richard Britton won the series, with fourth and won the Irish Short Circuit championship.

    “I sold the Suzuki last year and bought the Kawasaki 600. The Suzuki was never as quick as the other bikes, I could never get the horsepower out of it, but the Kawasaki had nine horsepower more. You wouldn’t notice that riding on your own but if you’re following someone with five horsepower more, they’d be pulling away from you out of the corners.”

    1999 began well with the Kawasaki and Kieran won the first three Short Circuit meetings - both Easter races, Aghadowey and Kirkistown and the next one at Nutts Corner and went on to win the Short Circuit again.

    This week McGrory is recovering from the weekend fall at Aghadowey which cracked a number of his ribs and is back at Kirkistown for the high profile UTV Champion of Champions series where he took second in the 600cc class and sixth overall last year.

    “I’m hoping to win the Champion of Champions, my bikes are definitely up to it so it depends if my ribs are up to it now,” he said, “I think it’s going to be the main series in the future, it’s televised and if you’re going to get sponsorship, you’ll get it from there.”

    The elusive sponsorship will be crucial for Kieran and Caroline’s next step on the motorcycle racing ladder. If things go well at the UTV series this week and in July they are planning a strategy which would take them to England where the series competition is.