Paul Gartland emerged as the most successful local rider as the Enniskillen Road Races returned to Fermanagh. 
The Ederney rider claimed a race win in the Lightweight Supersport race on an historic day, and followed that up with a fourth place and two sixth place finishes around the Arney track.
“It went as well as I could have hoped,” said the Kawasaki rider, who dominated the race and cruised to victory. 
“I led from start to finish and there wasn’t really anybody pushing me. It was obviously nice to get a win but it wasn’t much of a race to watch or even to take part in.”
Paul qualified in pole position, recording a lap time that left him seven seconds clear of his closest rival. 
From the front row he immediately surged into a lead that he was never to lose, setting the fastest lap of the race on his way to a 27 second victory.
Paul was also out in the Supertwin race, where he qualified fifth on his Kawasaki. The star of the weekend, Derek McGee, once again led the field home as he continued his dominance of the event but Paul kept in touch with the leaders throughout coming home in fourth spot, just outside the podium positions.
The Ederney rider was also out in the two Superbike races. The fifth race of the day was his first chance to debut the bigger bike around the new track, and after qualifying in seventh place with an average speed over 93 miles per hour, he moved up a place from the start and held on to sixth throughout the six lap race.
His final appearance was in the Richard Britton Memorial Race. From his starting position of seventh Paul had moved up one place after the end of lap one. He briefly dropped back to seventh, but regained sixth on the third lap and went on to secure his fourth top six finish of the day in the feature race.
Paul was delighted with his successful day’s racing, but admitted that he was doubtful that he would ever see the day that road racing took place in his home county. 
“The amount of effort the wee club has put into it has been phenomenal,” he acknowledged. 
“When they initially took me out to run my eye over it I thought it wasn’t going to go ahead because there was too much to get done, but any obstacles they have had put in front of them they have seemed to overcome it and its great it has got going.”
Paul acknowledges that some of the riders had some doubts about the new track, but once the racing got underway most of the comments on the circuit were positive. 
“Initially everybody struggled a bit with the bumps at the start,” he revealed. “During the first two practice sessions that were untimed I wasn’t a massive fan of it, but once the sessions were timed and we got a bit of a shake on and started riding it at race speed, it all started to make a bit more sense. The bumps weren’t just as bad because we were skipping over the top of them. The main road section is very good. Heading out towards the Five Points is a lovely section of road, and heading back in past the paddock is a nice uphill corner. It has a wee bit of everything.”
“This has been a good success and hopefully the council are going to see that it has brought an influx into the county. Maybe they will help put up some more money to do a bit more resurfacing on the back road. If that was resurfaced to iron out the bumps on it, it would be a superb wee track,” he added.
Overall the event appears to have been a huge triumph, and Paul thinks the event can only improve in the years to come. 
“I think it will go on to be a big success,” he said. “On Saturday there was a big crowd out around the track and that was good to see. You only have to get a run round on the warm up lap on Saturday to see the crowds that were out at it, and it can only go on from there,” he said. “It is always nice when you are in front of the home crowd. There is so little of that down this end of the country. It’s all football or rallying down here and no-one really knows about the bike racing part of it, so it was great.”