All roads led to St. Angelo airport at the weekend for the annual Irish Championship short circuit event hosted by Enniskillen & District Motorcycle Club, Road Race Ltd, and although there were riders from all over Ireland and beyond, there was certainly a lot of local interest.
The Club who work tirelessly the whole year round, strive to get local riders involved, and the home support was plain to be seen.
The opening Superbike Pro race saw three of our locals in action. Short circuit specialists Aaron Armstrong and Andrew Brady got off to a good start along with road racer Paul Gartland, but unfortunately Andrew went down exiting the chicane. No such dramas for Aaron as he stayed trouble free and came home in fifth position while Paul finished eighth. The race was won by newly crowned champion Charles Stuart from Ryan Gibson. 
Club member Tomas Lavin who is normally a Superbike Cup rider, got a chance to mix it with the big guys, and finished with a second place in his class. In the second Superbike Pro event, Andrew hoped to make up for his earlier misfortune, and he didn’t disappoint as the three locals battled it out throughout the race and he just missed out on a podium finish followed by Aaron in fifth and Paul in sixth. Thomas repeated his earlier result by being the second Cup rider Home, which also gave him his first podium of the season. Cody Nally was the victor in this one from again the in form Stuart.
Aaron was also in action in the Supersport Pro races and in race one finished a fine fourth place after the 10 lapper. Korie McGreevy took the win from Supersport championship winner Jason Lynn. Two of our local Supersport Cup riders, Dylan Leonard and Stephen Montgomery were also in action in this one with them finishing third and fourth respectively in their class. In race two, Aaron went one better to take the third place podium finish, while Jason took the win from Ross Patterson. Dylan was the third place Cup rider home while Stephen took fifth.
In the Irish Supersport Cup race, it was Kevin Lavery took the win while local riders Damien Lynch was fourth, Loris Britton, making his debut on a 600, was 11th, Ian McGarrigle 12th and Adrian Heraty 15th. Damien stepped up a gear in race two and brought the bike home in second place behind double winner Lavery, with Britton eighth, McGarrigle again 12th and Heraty 14th. Run concurrently, it was Chris Campbell who took the double win in the Forgotten Era while Paul Demaine also claimed a double in the Irish Superbike Cup class.
The ever popular Lightweight Supersport class was to see five local starters in this one. Unfortunately two of them didn’t make the starting line. Club member Ronan Kerrigan was gutted to have a blown engine in practise while newly crowned champion Gartland had electrical problems after he had posted the second fastest time in practise. In race one, it was Mark Gamblin who took the win, Slane Maguire was eighth, Grant Kennedy 20th while Liam Kenny was 26th. Gamblin made it a double in race two with once again Maguire in eighth and Kennedy in 16th.
In the Supertwin races, Gartland was again in action and claimed two second place finishes behind newly crowned champion Simon Reid, son of former World Champion back in the 80’s Brian. Shane Sweeney was a double winner in the Production Twins class while another Enniskillen club member David McCrea finished with two seventh places.
In the Pre-injection class, it was Rosslea rider Andrew Brady who dominated both races to score a wonderful double on his 600 Yamaha in the two eight lap races. Another local, Aileen Keenan finished 19th in race one and followed it up with 17th in race two.
No stranger to any circuit, Melissa Kennedy was once again in action on the KNR Moto 3 Honda. After her recent third place podium finish on the roads at Killalane, she backed that up with third and fourth place finishes on her home short circuit with some determined riding behind double winner Christian Elkin with Cathal Graham coming home second in both races. Run concurrently, Gareth Keys took a double win in the 350 forgotten era while John McAllister scored a double in the 250 GP class.
In the Junior Cup, it was Jonny Campbell who took the first race win from Andrew Smyth after early leader Sam Laffins went down on lap one. Not to be outdone, Laffins went on to take the win in race two with Campbell second. In the Young Guns Challenge races, it was Brendan Glover who took the wins followed by Cameron Dawson second. New Enniskillen club member Jamie Lyons rode a great first race in this class, finishing on the podium in third place but slipped off during the second race, thankfully unhurt.
In the Classic events, it was Barry Davidson who took the win in the 250, Lintin Irwin in the 350, Alex Conroy in the 500, and Robert McCrum in the 1000.
A big congratulations must go out to Rodney Shaw, Fiona Ferris and every single club member, who made this event into something special with difficult weather conditions, but also record race entries and a record number of spectators.