The weekly motocross round-up

Great racing was the order of the day at the North Armagh’s Quads and Sidecar Ulster and Irish Championship meeting at Tandragee Moto Park.
Mark McLernon was in form over the weekendMark McLernon was in form over the weekend
Mark McLernon was in form over the weekend

Hillsborough’s Mark McLernon was in unstoppable form at the fast, hard packed Tandragee track as he qualified the Rea Engineering/Walsh CRF 450 fastest for the JMK/Ballymac ATV-S Premier quad class and then went on to convincingly win all three races from Leon Rogers.

The former British champion got the hole shot in race one and was dominant as he stretched his lead over Rogers to a comfortable winning margin at the flag by the end of the 18 minute plus a lap race.

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Third home was Justin Reid on the Justin racing CAN-AM 450.

Race two was much of the same with the Honda rider getting past Rogers on lap two and pulling a massive 13 seconds by the chequered flag. Reid had to settle for fourth behind Dean Dillon by the finish.

McLernon completed his hat-trick with yet another victory.

“That was a really good day. Everything worked out good today and the three wins were awesome. Leon got the hole shot in race two but I passed him on the second lap and pulled a ten second gap before easing off on the last lap to win comfortably.

“It was good practice for the British round here in a couple of weeks time and hopefully we can come away with the same results,” said Mark.

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Leon Rogers was second overall with teenager Dean Dillon from Moria third.

Lisburn’s Neil Campbell with passenger Ross Graham, were comfortable winners of the three Ballymac Hotel sidecars races extending their lead in the Ulster Championship and closed the gap slightly in the Irish title race.

“It was a good day for us taking all three wins. We didn’t have a lot of competition with Gary Moulds still out injured but we just had to keep pushing forward to keep our fitness up,” said Neil.

Second in the sidecar races were Emma Moulds and Niki Adair. The duo still lead the Irish Championship by 28 points from Campbell and Graham and with one round to go and barring a complete disaster should win their first Irish title.

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In Saturday’s racing they made life hard with poor starts and coming through from last place on more than one occasion.

“Three second places was good considering we made it really difficult. In race one we stalled the bike at the first corner and had to work hard to get second on the final lap.

“Then in race two we were last away and had to ride hard for second but we are getting faster as our lap times show and in four weeks time hopefully we will be crowned Irish Champions for the first time. After all the hard work Niki and I have put in over the winter it would be nice to get something back.

Fingers crossed.” Added Emma. Jonathan Wilson and Louise Houston completed the top three.

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Jamie Quinn was the overall winner of the clubman quads from Jack Young while Mark Mullholland won the 250 quad class. In the junior quad class for 80/100cc machines Harry Minish was the overall winner from Chloe Gibson with Conor Bradley taking the laurels in the Autos.

Jordan McCaw from Ballymoney won the 50 th anniversary running of the Brian Bell Memorial Trophy at Laurelbank. Riding the Watts Motorcycles 450 SX-f KTM backed by Carmichael’s Bar Bistro and Restaurant of Ballymoney McCaw was in superb form as he rattled off four wins on the day including the prestigious Brian Bell invitation race.

“It was nice to get my name on a great trophy and to come away with four wins on the day was a great feeling. I’m riding well at the moment.”