Teenager has Keyes to success at Nutts Corner

The Mid Antrim club organised meeting, the first race action of the season was, it has to be said, very poorly supported by not only riders but also fans, perhaps kept away by the weather forecast. The day started with a frozen track. Then snow, that quickly turned to rain. This coupled with a biting wind did little to increase the enjoyment of the day’s racing.

The first race of the day was for 125 Newcomers and the 125 Production class combined. Right from the start Kevin Keyes disappeared, lapping almost everybody else in the field. Young Aaron Clifford, the 125 Production class winner, was the only rider left on the same lap as Kevo, who won by 7.6 seconds.

Antrim’s Adam Simpson was credited with third place, a lap down, despite dropping his bike just one corner from home. Greyabbeys Annalee Simpson took her first ever trophy by finishing as the second Production bike and Gilfords Jordan Grier was third, nearly one and a half seconds adrift.

It was Kevin Keyes who monopolised the GP125 race as well. He fired his little Honda away from the line, setting the fastest lap and winning by 7.7 seconds from Paul McCartney. Ross Patterson was well back in third place. Ahoghill man Kirk Dickey was the first SS400 finisher, ahead of Dale Gordon and Angela Kernohan. Hope that’s spelt OK for you, Angie. If it’s not blame the programme. Ha ha.

Veteran rider Paul Cranston, who is better known as a road racer, had an easy win in the Superbike race. He finished 19.2 seconds ahead of Antrim’s Jamie Patterson. Patterson, in turn, was hounded by Gareth Evans, the local rider being just .2 ahead at the finish.

Belfast rider Stephen Clarke was the early leader of the Pre Injection race. It wasn’t long before slow starting Steven McKeown took over and moved away to register a race win, by 3.3 seconds. Gareth George was steady in third place all race.

The Supertwins/Stocktwin race was the best supported of the day. Ballymoney man Trevor Elliott was the early leader, but could make no real break. At the halfway point Lisnaskea’s Aaron Armstrong forced his way into the lead and tried to make a break. That didn’t happen, and the Co. Antrim man was forced to settle for second place, just .3 behind.

Antrim’s Luke Hazlett had his first race on a 4 stroke bike. Luke hadn’t the best of starts, but moved through to grab third place, just .1 of a second ahead of Stuart Elwood, the Lisburn rider having his comeback ride after a nasty leg break at the end of last year.

The 600 race was red flagged on the opening lap after Paul Cranston fell and Gareth Evans went down with him. The race was never re run, leaving the Supersport riders without a race.

During some of the worst rain, Dylan Lynch/Stephen Russell took a comfortable win in the sidecar class. They finished 28.5 seconds ahead of a good dice for the lower podium places involving Terry O’Reilly/Clive Russell and Peter O’Neill/Stephen Smyth. O’Reilly got the verdict, but just over a second.

Steven McKeown wrapped up his second race of the day by comfortably beating Chris Campbell in the F1 Forgotten Era class. There was 24.6 seconds between them at the finish. Scot Bryan Allan beat team mate Barry Davidson, both on Dempster Honda’s, to win the Classic race, while Ken Fleming was the first Forgotten Era bike across the line, coming from behind and finishing well ahead of Ross Crymble.

After the Classic/FE race the day’s sport was brought to an end, but in truth by then spectators had started to drift away and riders had started to pack their bikes away, seemingly having lost interest.

Just reading through race results. The fastest lap in the 125 class, set by Kevin Keyes, was 43.4 seconds and the fastest lap in the Superbike class, set by Paul Cranston, was 41.3 seconds. Shows how great a leveller the wet is. Just over 2 seconds difference.

RED BULL TRY OUT FOR KEVIN AND KIA

As I men-tioned above, Jonathan Rea and Jeremy McWilliams spent two days last week at Nutts Corner with the Red Bull sponsored Under My Wing scheme.

The idea was to try to find, from tarmac or MX riders, a lad for Jonny to take under his wing, for some one on one coaching.

Had the winner been an MX rider then the prize would have been tailored towards that discipline.

On Thursday, the MX lads had over an hour on track by themselves, getting used to short circuit machines. There were indoor classes as well, where both WSB star Jonny and Jeremy, Irelands last GP winner, gave them talks on things like nutrition, bike set up, training, physical and mental preparation, how to approach sponsors and how to deal with the media, something which Jonny said was vitally important in these days where sponsorship can mean the difference in racing or sitting on the sidelines. Hope some of the MCUI officials were listening.

Things got a bit more serious on Friday, when JR stood for much of the day on a scaffold beside one of the flag men, and watched every rider on track, even asking me a few times who lads were. He even knew a wee bit about some of them.

I was very impressed by the whole idea, and the way Red Bull presented it. All their staff, marshals, media, and even the security guys were taken inside and sat down to a decent meal at lunchtime. They had a PR lady, Joanne, who made herself available to deal with anything that I as a photographer/journalist wanted to know. Nothing was too much trouble, and it showed.

At the end of the two days, Ballynahinch lad Kia McGreevy, whos only 14 and 15 year old Kevin Keyes, from Edenderry, Co. Offaly, were selected as the winners. What was kept secret from them was the fact that part of the prize was that they got to try out for the Red Bull Rookies series, that runs along with the MotoGP races.

There was no attempt by either lad to hide their delight when the result was announced, and I think maybe Jonny was a bit surprised when Kia jumped on him and gave him a hug. I wish both lads well. I’ve known both since they started racing and they are both great kids, who with the help and nurturing that Jonathan Rea can give them, will definitely go far.

NEW TITLE SPONSOR FOR ULSTER GRAND PRIX

A new title sponsor has been announced for this year’s Ulster Grand Prix.

Like all other races the Ulster has been suffering over recent years from lack of money, but hopefully this announcement will help to secure the future of the event, which is renowned as the fastest motorcycle race in the World.

A new 3 year deal has been finalised with German tyre manufacturer Metzeler, who are to be the new title sponsors of the meeting.

Speaking last week on the new deal, James Courtney, a former top flight road racer and now chairman of the Dundrod club said: “We are happy to announce our partnership with Metzeler, a World renowned organisation that understands and shares the passion we have for road racing. It is an acknowledgement of all the hard work we put in to raise the status of our event.”

The Metzeler Ulster Grand Prix Bike Week, which also includes the Dundrod 150 races on the Thursday, runs from Monday 12th August till Saturday, 27th. Further info can be had on the UGP website,www.ulstergrandprix.net

MONDELLO THIS WEEKEND

After last weekends Nutts Corner event, it’s down to serious action at Mondello Park this weekend for the first round of the Irish Superbike championship.

I’ve had no pre event info from Mondello, but I do know that theres a motorcycle test day on the Saturday, and racing is on the Sunday. I’ve tried to find starting times etc for Sunday, but can’t.

I would imagine that practice will be from 9am and that being Mondello, they will try to get a couple of races in before lunch. I hope the weather’s a bit better than last Saturday, or it’s going to be a long weekend.

Roy Adams