All roads at the weekend led to St. Angelo for Round 9 of the Ulster Superbike Championship hosted by the Enniskillen & District Motorcycle Club where many of our local riders were in action.

Dry conditions was the order of the day, as record crowds were subjected to an 18 race programme over the circuit at the County Fermanagh airport.

In the first race of the day, it was Gary McCoy who took the lead in the shortened Supertwin race and was never headed as he took the race win from Stephen McKnight with Cathal Graham third. Meanwhile on the local front, Paul Gartland and Enda Trearty finished 5th and 6th respectively while Derrylin rider Peter O’Dwyer finished 10th. In the second Supertwin race, it was once again McCoy and McKnight who filled the top two spots with Ross Irwin completing the podium, Gartland just missed out in fourth spot, Trearty 7th and O’Dwyer 11th. Run concurrently, the first Production twin race was won by Shane Sweeney with Kevin Lavery second and Adam Crooks third. David McCrea was the first local man home in sixth place while Wayne Bussell was ninth. Sweeney was hoping to make it a double in race 2 but unfortunately slipped off leaving the way for Crooks to take the win, with Lavery second and Jonny Hanna third. Bussell and McCrea finished 5th and 6th respectively in this one.

Four of the local guys were in action in the Pre-injection class, and it’s also when the fans got their first chance to cheer home a local winner in the shape of Rosslea’s Andrew Brady, but he had to work hard for the top spot. After a bad start, he made his way through the field in the 8 lapper to take the lead with just one lap to go, and take the win by 0.7 second over Jonny Irwin with club member Derek O’Donnell in third. Trearty finished back in 8th, while newcomer Nathan Britton finished 17th. Problems with Brady’s bike in race two left him a non starter, and holding the lead going into the first corner, O’Donnell then slipped off at turn three, also putting him out of the race. With 2 of the top 3 in race one out, it was Johnny Aiken who took the race win from Irwin again second with Dermot Cleary third, Trearty 7th and Britton 13th.

In the first Moto 3 race, it was championship winner who led from start to finish, but behind him, step up Florencecourt rider Wayne Kennedy. Not having raced competitively for six years, it certainly didn’t take him long to get back into the swing of things on the bike belonging to his sister, and top road racer, Melissa, and subsequently brought the KNR Honda home in fantastic second place with Junior Cup Masters Champion Jamie Lyons in third, while club members Nathan and Andrew Cairns came in 4th and 5th. The top three was repeated in race two, while after a great battle between the Cairns brothers, Nathan again finished 4th, but with the belly pan of the bike coming off over a bumpy part of the circuit, Andrew had to settle for 6th.

Darryl Tweed was the winner of the first Lightweight Supersport class, from Stephen Mckeown and Gary McCoy in third, while behind them Darryl Anderson held off the challenge from Gartland to take 4th while Slane Maguire from Kesh, who recently won the Dunlop Masters Lightweight Supersport Championship, in 12th position. In race two, Tweed scored the double with McCoy second and Gartland getting himself on the podium in third, while Maguire finished 10th and another local, Liam Trainor, who had no luck in race one, finishing 11th.

Alistair Kirk held off the challenge of the local guys Aaron Armstrong and Paul Gartland in race one of the Superbike Pro class while Dylan Leonard scored a great win as a cup rider, and breaking the lap record in the process. Kirk went on in race two to take the win, although Armstrong pushed him all the way to the line, and as they crossed it, 0.15 second separated them. Ryan Gibson completed the podium with Gartland in fourth, and Leonard yet again broke his own lap record to be the first cup rider home. Keelim Ryan was the double winner in the Superbike Cup class, scoring a 17 second win over Enniskillen’s Damien Lynch in race one with David Duffy third, and Aaron’s dad Alan Armstrong in fourth. In race two, the positions were swapped for 2nd and 3rd, with Armstrong again coming in 4th.

Supersport Championship winner Jason Lynn took the honours in their first race of the day from Cup rider Simon Reid in second and Mark Conlin in third with Aaron Armstrong a very close fourth place, while Damien Lynch and Derek O’Donnell were the 7th and 8th place cup riders respectively. No luck for Dylan Leonard, retiring on lap three of the race. He did however make up for it in race two, coming home 5th in the cup rider stakes, while at the front it was Lynn who once again took the win from Conlin with Christian Elkin coming in third, and once again Armstrong missing out on the podium in fourth place. In the Supersport Cup race one, it was Alan Johnston who got the top spot from from Barry Kelly and Jonathan Patterson with club member Adrian Heraty finishing 5th. Johnston completed the double on race two with Declan McCabe and again Patterson completing the podium with Heraty 6th.

The first Junior Cup race went to Cameron Dawson after a start to finish win over Jonny Campbell, while Jamie Lyons finished third after holding off the challenge of Scott McCrory, while Brookeborough rider Adam McClintock finished 9th. In their second race, it was again Dawson who led from the start, but a pass by Campbell at the end of lap four, saw him take over at the front and hold on to take the win, with Lyons again 3rd and McClintock 8th. Run concurrently, it was Joshua Rae who took the double in the Young Guns Challenge from Braydon Cummings and Karl Lynch completing the podium, while Irvinestown rider Liam Baird finished 4th and 5th in his two races.

Barry Davidson was the double winner in the c250 Classics, while there were wins for Linton Irwin and Nicky Lamb in the c350s, and David Carleton was also a double winner in the c500 class.

As always a great event held by the EDMCC, and they would like to thank everyone all those who helped them out in any way possible, to all the riders who put on an excellent show, and to all the spectators who turned up to the once a year meeting. And a big thank you must go to the Fermanagh & Omagh District Council for their continued support.