Local Riders Shine at Damp Bush road races.

Local riders brightened up in what was a rather dismal day weather wise at the fourth running of the Bush road races, sponsored by Horta Soils.

Despite the damp weather conditions, records were broken and local riders occupied no less than 15 podium placings,

With Four wins, Ryan Farquhar was undoubtley the Man of the meeting, if Ryan was the Bride, then John Burrows was the bridesmaid!, taking four second placings , Andy Neil covered himself in glory, when he romped away with the 250 race, beating his team mate Michael Dunlop for 2nd, After Friday evenings practices, it was looking good for the local lads, with both Ryan Farquhar and John Burrows both inside the 600 and 1000 lap records!, albeit unofficially. Nigel Moore was also celebrating after a good day

Mark  Young Remembered.

Before racing began, races fans paused for a minutes silence, after George McCann read out a rather poignant article on The Late Mark Young, Tears were visible amongst many fans, and indeed, George was finding it hard to read the words, which were so well put together. ALL competitors in both the 125 and 250 races each received a specially commemorated Plaque, in memory of Mark Young.

The opening race of the meeting was the 250 race,, The Noel Wray Memorial race, sponsored by D&GW  Racing, in memory of their Father, It was somewhat fitting, that the this race saw a One two for the Wray race team, with local man, Andy Neil romping home to win by almost 20 seconds, from team mate Michael Dunlop.. Stylish as ever, Barry Davison had a lonely ride to take 3rd spot but had the satisfaction of having the fastest lap!, Davison was well clear of Darren Burns, with Emlyn Hughes holding of Adrian McFarland for 5th spot, McFarland having his first race since his spill at Cookstown. Phil Archer qualified well, but dropped back to 13th at the flag. William Dunlop, who was a late entry retired at the end of the opening lap, unhappy with the conditions.

Race two, was the Supertwins race sponsored by Auto Tech and Kronos Audio Visual.

Just as he did at Tandragee, Ryan Farquhar romped away to what looked like an easy win, indeed, he was almost a minute ahead of Des Butler in second spot, but with rain falling heavily on the last two laps, ryan thought that it should have been red flagged, as the track was quite treacherous in places, due to the recent re surfacing.

Wayne Kirwan qualified second, but slid off on the opening lap, while John Burrows was a late entry for this class, qualified 3rd, but pulled in at the end of lap one.

Making his debut in the Supertwins class was Paul Lennon, on board Marty Lyons Suzuki, Lyons was ruled out of the race, having broken a schaphoid whilst moto crossing during the week.

English visitor Neil Vicars took 4th ahead of Dave Hedison and Ronnie Scott. Roy Scott on the PK Racing Kawasaki took 8th and colin McWhirter on the Hot Stuff racing Suzuki taking 12th spot.

The Clinton Enterprises 250/350 classic race produced a great scrap between two locals.

Ed Manly had been quickest in practice, but his machine developed trouble half way through the race, leaving Nigel Moore and John Burrows to battle it out.

Nigel, having his first outing on the 350 Honda took the lead with two laps to go, and took a well deserved win from Burrows, (who was riding Steve Caffyns Honda ),despite having gear box trouble,  Burrows managed to increase his championship lead, with manx rider Allan Brew taking the lovely aermacchi home in 3rd ahead of veteran Denis Gallagher in 4th.

Barry Davison topped the 250 class with 5th overall, with Trevor Stewart taking 4th spot.

In the 350 class, Billy Lyle took 5t ,  and Freddie Stewart in 7th . Thomas Hogg on the leonard Honda retired from 5th on the penultimate lap.

The Hobson Electronics/Hayes Fuels junior support saw  former Clerk of the Course for the Bush road races, Darren Hughes on pole, on board Ryan Farquhars 650 kawasaki, on which he hopes to make his manx debut in a few months time.

Tricky conditions saw the lead change on quite a few occasions, and indeed at one stage, Hughes was down in 6th place. Dave Hedison was the early leader before he was overhauled by exciting newcomer, Wayne Hamilton. Despite riding with a knee injury, Hughes put in a determined effort to catch the young Hamilton, but the Track Day Tools rider , who crashed out during Friday nights timed practice,responded with a new class record (on a drying track) to win by  over 7 seconds from Hughes. Late entry, William Davison took 3rd on corrected time ahead of Hedison. Timmy Turtle was 5th,  a result that did not look possible on Friday after practice!

In the re run of the 250/400 practices on fri evening, Timmys machine suffered extensive damage when his chain came off, thus ruling him out of Saturdays 400 support race.

However in a rather strange set of circumstances, he was re united with his bike from last year!. Fellow competitor, R J Woolsley had bought the bike from the guy who Timmy sold the bike to, john burrows rode it in the twins race, and Woosley kindly agreed to let Timmy race it, in order to protect his points in the championship trail.

Cirian Donnely on Bob and Jill Pattersons 250 honda carved his way through the field from a very low qualifying to finish 8th , while Roy Scott took the PK racing machine home in 16th place.

The Dungannon and South Tyrone Council Supersport 600 race saw ryan Farquhar take win no 2, on board the KMR Kawasaki, he led from start to finish.

Such was the pace in this race, the first three riders broke the old lap record!.

On board the BE Racing yamaha, John Burrows scored his best ever 600 race result when he headed home a determined Stephen McKnight. These three guys had also the satisfaction of beating TT winner Michael Dunlop, who took 4th place. Victor Gilmore was 5th ahead of another local Andrew Neil.

Adrian McFarland took 7th,Paul Cranston, who just made it too the line in time for the start, finished 12th, and Timmy Turtle was 15th .

William Dunlop retired at the end of lap one, whilst a coming to gether between Damien Mulleady and Michael Pearson, saw Pearson crash out, luckily with out injury.

The Gerard McHugh& Son Crane Hire 125 race saw Michael Dunlop lead from start to finish, however he was pressed hard by two locals, For five laps, Andrew Neil was hot onn his heels before Andy retired, then Nigel Moore, who had been over three seconds adrift, made a charge, and at the line, was just one sixteenth of a second in arrears!. Moore was credited with the fastest lap of the race.

Sam Dunlop took third ahead of wayne Kennedy, who had his best ever result in this class,Barry Davison was next home on the Coleraine motor cycles Honda with William Dunlop competing the top six., Craig Gibson was 9th, with Jamie O Brien 12th.

Making his debut on a 125 machine, was classic exponent, Neil McWhirter, unfortunately Neil was disqualified for flag infringements!, loosing out on a possible 6th place!

Michael Dunlop won the Mark Young Memorial Trophy, as been the Fastest overall 125 rider. This was presented by D&GW Racing.

The H2 Engineering 750 support race  was yet another record breaking race, despite the tricky conditions during the race, Cavans Benny Smith shrugged of an early challenge by local lad, timmy Turtle, Timmy on board the Autotech Honda, chased Smith before settling for a safe second place, well clear of leading clubmans championship contender Billy Bryne.

Ardstraws Gary Millar had his best result since his return to racing when he took a hard fought 4th place, finishing ahead of Robert Gordon and scotlands Craig Shirlaw.

Darren Hughes on the Fatboyz Racing Kawasaki finished a creditable 11th, with Julian Kirk finishing in 19th place.

The Clive Richardson/Horta Soils Bush open race was the first big bike race of the day, and the slippery conditions certainly made this exciting to watch!. Tyre choice was critical, as parts of the circuit were wet, and others dry!, it was indeed a trickey situation, on the opening few laps, the leading riders were seen to be shaking their heads as they swept past the start/finish area.

But as the races had meeting had been declared a “ Wet Race” earlier in the day, the trye choice was up tom the rider themselves!.

Up front, it was rain specialist ryan Farquhar who led the way, john Burrows was slipping and sliding as he tried to hold on to second spot, Andrew Neil, having his best ever run on the big bike, actually eased his way into second place before retiring, Burrows then came under pressure from Stephen McKnight, who was riding his 600 yamaha, which was no doubt a more managable machine in the conditions. At the flag, Farquhar won by 13 seconds from burrows who anaged to hold off a very determined McKnight. Michael Dunlop was again 4th ahead of andy Brady, who earlier in the day suffered a rather embarrassing moment, when he ran too tight into the final corner, and over balanced his bike, and fell on to the grass, and probably not even doing five miles an hour!.

Paul Cranston took 6th place ahead of wayne Kenendy on the Doons stores Yamaha.

The Gannonball Run senior classic race produced yet another record breaking race. manx man, Allan Brew proved he is getting back to form following his last lap spill at Cookstown, led the arce from the start to finish, on board his beautiful G50 Seeley, he was hotly pursured by local Classic hero, Neil McWhirter, on the equally immaculate ATH Manx Norton.

It was on the last lap that McWhirter put in an exceptional lap, to close the gap to just over a second from Brew.

So fast were these two guys, that the third man, Mark Morgan (winner of the 1000 class) was 78 seconds behind!, 4th place man, Billy Lyle along with the top three had the satisfaction of breaking the old lap record.

Scotlands Mark McGaw was 5th ahead of John Scott, with Freddie stewart in 9th.

The final race of the day probably got the best condtions of the day, but even saying that, they wouldn’t have been described as perfect race conditions.

However, The Cohannon Inn & Auto Lodge Grand Final produced a great finale for the days racing.

From the flag, it was again the orange Kawasaki of Ryan Farquhar who headed into the lead. As in previous races, John Burrows gave hot pursuit, the exciting interest of the race was the progress of Michael Dunlop, who choose to ride his 600 machine, and had started in the second group.

On the second lap, Farquhar broke the existing lap record, whilst on lap three he went even faster again!, john Burrows kept his speed up, and like his neighbour, also broke the existing lap record . Dunlop was carving his way through the field, and was now 3rd on corrected time, Andy Neil was having his best ever run on the superstock machine, with Cranston in 4th, McKnight, who was impressive throughout the day in 5th, with Neil competing the top 6.

Speaking to the Courier after the races, Ryan Farquhar and John Burrows had this to say;

Ryan “The weather was quite iffy to be honest and it made tyre a choice a bit of a lottery but the Dunlop intermediates run well in both the wet and the dry so I stuck with them for the day. In the Supertwins race some parts of the circuit were wet and some were dry but I got my head down and was never challenged. It was a fair bit wetter for the 600cc race and a lot of riders did opt for wets but it was drying quickly and that played in to my hands. It was much the same in the two 1000cc races and although they were declared wet races, the safe bet was to again go with the intermediates and it paid dividends.'

"I was definitely a wee bit down after the TT as the results there were not what I was hoping for but I feel refreshed now and the four wins today have certainly raised the spirits. I'm leading 7 Championships now - the Irish Open, 600cc and Supertwins series' and the corresponding Ulster ones plus the Duke Road Race Rankings - and it's an extremely busy time of the year for me with one meeting after another so let's hope they're all as good as today!"

John Burrows;”

I am well pleased with my results to day, i suppose if Ryan hadn’t been here to day, i would be on top of the world!, but its a case of being the Bridesmaid again!

Overall its a good result for the team, the boys worked hard, the bikes were good and we got the results. After practice, i was pretty confident, as Ryan and myself were the only guys to get under the 600 and open class lap records.

Obviously the weather wasn’t what we would have been hoping for, nevertheless, i hope the crowds enjoyed the days racing.

Fair play to Ryan, he got his head down and went for it, and also to Nigel, he deserved to win in the classic race, i had problems, but this doesn’t take away from Nigels riding.

It was a good day for the locals, Andy taking the 250 race, and young Wayne Hamilton and Darren Hughes and Timmy Turtle doing good in the support classes.

Credit also to the club, as they ran a very efficient race meeting.

We are off to Athea this weekend, where no doubt, the opposition will be harder, but i will be giving it my best shot”

Photographs from the Bush road races can be viewed at http://www.irishracephotography.com and http://www.aarmstrongphotos.com

The Dungannon and District MCC  would like to take this opportunity to THANKS EVERYONE who helped in any way, with the running of the fourth Bush road races, without their help, the weekends racing would not have been possible, to the marshalls who braved the rain, and to the spectators who purchased programmes, and also behaved themselves very well, we say Thanks.

To George Young, as in the Past, he has run a good show, an excellent Clerk of the Course, i am sure you will all agree with me .

Words & Photos;

Baylon McCaughey

http://www.irishracephotography.com