Queen of Speed!

THE ‘Queen of Speed’ race for the ladies may be taking place at Ballymena Raceway this weekend but Portglenone’s Liscinda Smyth proved once again last weekend that she is still the oval circuit’s original fast lady with a demon drive to win the Group two Lightning Rod Final.
By The Newsroom
Published 26th Apr 2013, 10:31 BST

If the ladies needed any inspiration to get onto track for the charity race on April 26 then they need look no further than Liscinda who led the men a merry dance to collect the GP2 silverware ahead of Greg McMullan from Castlerock and Glarryford’s Shane Gault.

In the Stock Rod section Carl Sloan dashed Victor McAfee’s hat-trick hopes with a determined drive in the final. McAfee had blasted to a brace of heat wins, the second of which after a real nail-biter finish with Graham Young, but was forced to settle for the runner-up spot in the final, with Irish Champion Stevie McNiece in third.

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The Junior Rods provided their usual mixture of thrills and spills and the action became too fraught in the final where a sequence of incidents during two attempted starts led to the race being abandoned. Earlier the heat wins had been shared between impressive white top Antony Kincaid and Irish Champion Dean McCrory.

The Flying Finn, Billy Finnegan, maintained his one hundred percent final record in the Speed Stocks division to make it four final wins out of four so far in 2013. Two more new additions joined the numbers on Friday evening and it was one of the newcomers, Stewart Nicholl from Kilrea, who claimed the opening heats, with GP2 Irish Champion Curtis Greer the victor in heat two. Regrettably Calvin Blake was the only 1300 Stock Car to support the meeting and Calvin ran alongside the Speed Stocks all evening to complete the simplest of trophy wins.

Official Results: Stock Rods Final: 1st. Carl Sloan, 2nd. Victor McAfee, 3rd. Stevie McNiece; Speed Stocks: 1st. Billy Finnegan Jnr., 2nd. Stewart Nicholl, 3rd. Curtis Greer; GP2: 1st. Liscinda Smyth, 2nd. Greg McMullan, 3rd. Shane Gault; Junior Rod Heat 1: 1st. Antony Kincaid, 2nd. Dean McCrory, 3rd. Aaron Moody; Junior Rod Heat 2: 1st. McCrory, 2nd. Jason Darragh, 3rd. Kincaid.

* This weekend - We’ve all heard the less than complimentary comments about women drivers but the girls get an opportunity to prove those theories wrong at Ballymena Raceway on Friday evening (April 26) when the ladies compete for the Queen of Speed Trophy in a special charity event to raise money for Cancer Focus Northern Ireland.

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Around 15 brave souls are expected to participate and keen to show they can drive every bit as well as the men!

The ladies will race in borrowed GP2 cars. ORC Lightning Rods, Speed Stocks, Saloon Stock Cars and Junior Rods complete the busy schedule, with the first race getting underway in the Ballymena Showgrounds at 7:15pm.

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