Pulling into “Baxters” field it was a relief to see so many had made the effort and the field was full of an assortment of vehicles including two monster RVs close to the entrance which you’d normally have more chance of seeing at an F1 race. Amazing pieces of kit. Is DH the new F1?

The rain played its part in Saturday practice and the changing track conditions made tyre choice important  with some of the locals making a small fortune hiring out a power hose to clean the clogged up bikes and tyres. The uplifts were plentiful and the riders used this to their advantage to get as many runs in as possible. Late afternoon saw the course starting to dry out and everyone woke up to sunshine and an early 9.00am practice start. Big Ian Brown came out of retirement to do the commentating and it was great to hear his dulcet tones once again which kept spectators and riders alike informed of what was going on.

CRC's Matthew Jackson (aka Suzie)

As the course continued to dry out the race runs approached and the underage riders made their way to the top of the course to commence battle with their mates……and the course.

U14

Not quite a family affair but it was Cameron Cornforth (021 Racing) who took the honours in the U14s (by a massive 18+ seconds) with Angus Fyffe separating Cameron from his younger brother Luke with Adam Tarbett (Flow Racing) and Colin O’Donoghue filling the 4th and 5th places. There was a great turnout of 14 riders in this category on what was undoubtedly a very hard course – well done to you all!

 

U16

Kyle Rimmer (CRC) made a welcome return to the top point of the podium with a hard fought win over team mate Christopher Kipper McGlinchey (MSC/CRC). Chris Murphy (IMBRC) too 3rd place with Robert Duggan (Killarney CC) and Johnny McCarlin (CRC) taking the 4th and 5th spots respectively.

Killarney's Steven Hickey

Only a few years ago the Killarney CC shirt was everywhere and it was great to see 5 Killarney riders in the U16s.

Ladies

Maeve Baxter (Revolution/First Tracks) bounced back to winning ways at her home track deposing the ever improving Nathalie Jedda (Epic) who had taken the previous 2 NPS wins and it was Silvia Gallagaher (Epic) who took the 3rd place with a much improved second run.

 

Epic's Sylvia Gallagher

Supervets

A lower than normal turnout for the “most experienced” riders and it was Tom Sheridan (Flow Racing) who took the win from his team mate Peter Popham. Tom also had the biggest winning margin of the day (25 seconds) and very kindly donated the £50 prize money to the Liam Baxter’s nominated charity.

Vets

In probably the strongest Vet field of the year to date, Stevie Davidson proved to be too strong and took the win by an impressive 12.6 seconds. Steven Graham continued with his run of great results and took second place from Colin Finlay (Potato Bred). Both riders entertained the crowd at the finish area with spectacular offs in their second runs but thankfully no injuries. Carl “Banana Man” Young (Dublin Blazers) finished just off the podium 4th (that doesn’t happen often!) and Paul Callan (CRC) 5th.

Sport

The Sport class was as ever very competitive with 28 riders and less than 2 seconds separating the top 3. Rob Lane however claimed the victory ahead of Gareth O’Reilly and Chris Tyndall.

Brian Hennessy

Seniors

Another 28 riders signed on and it was English visitor William Jones (PS Cycles) who took the win in a time of 2.32.575. Adam Tynan (Epic) was just under 3 seconds behind in 2nd place with Colin O’Leary in 3rd, Colm Bradley in 4th and Nigel Glynn (Think Bike)  5th.

Masters

CRCs Michael Cowan dominated this category and his winning time of  2.30.836 was just over 5 seconds better than his team mate Ricky “Plush” McKillen who posted a 2.35.879.

CRC's Nigel Elder

Dale McMullan (CRC), with a last minute dash, made it an all CRC podium just pushing Joe Ward (Potato Bred) into 4th and Ian McIntyre (CRC) into 5th.

Juniors

This category was as usual hotly contested with a number of riders all capable of taking the win. It was however David Graham (Bike Tart.com) who again took the victory from the very fast Gavin Carroll by 0.07…it couldn’t have been much closer.

Marc Potts

Marc Potts from Omagh impressed in 3rd place with Greg O’Callaghan (2stage bikes)taking 4th and Gavin Kelly 5th. Marc and Gavin Kelly were the only two riders out of the top 5 to improve on their first run times with David, Gavin C and Greg all experiencing problems of one kind or another on their second runs.

Elites

A completely new set of faces on the podium for the third round! Irish Champion Colin Ross (Bike Dock) gave the KTM its NPS maiden victory with a blistering first run time of  2.19.553 with Jamie McCullough (Potato Bred) setting a marginally less blistering first run time of 2.20.332 to take 2nd place. Both riders failed to improve on their first run times and it was Gareth McKee (2stage bikes) who punctured on his first run who kept it together on his second run to take the final podium place with a 2.22.258. The old war dog that is Glyn O’Brien made one of his rare appearances to take 4th place and Scott Laughland (Castle Melamine), a very welcome visitor from Scotland, took 5th place after two “eventful” race runs.

Great event and a great turnout with over 185 riders signing on. It was refreshing to see so many clubs being represented and the return of some riders who haven’t been racing as much recently, including Glyn OB, John Lawlor (being closely watched by the Eamonator), Darren Quille, Ricky Lawrence, Wallace Erwin and Erwin Buick but to name a few.

Whilst Ireland is not the biggest country in the world by a long chalk the trip from Cork and Kerry to the North (and vice versa) is long enough and it’s great to see that riders will still travel for a weekend riding and craic. It was also great to see some new faces and hopefully Scott Laughland (Elites) and William Jones (Seniors) will spread some good reports about Irish DH racing and that we’ll get some more visitors from across the Irish Sea and further afield to experience what Irish DH has to offer.

Epic & IrishDH's Gavin Doran

There were unfortunately some casualties over the course of the weekend. Punctures were plentiful, particularly during race runs and rear mechs and hangers took an absolute battering. More importantly however there were a number of riders injured in varying degrees including Graham Diamond from MAD who we believe broke his arm. Richie Smith had a spectacular crash at the road gap but after a few worrying moments and the speedy attention of the paramedic he appeared to be badly shaken but OK. Irish DH wishes them and any other injured riders a full and speedy recovery.

CRC's Stephen Gormley

Big thanks to the CRC crew for another memorable event, to the Baxter family for use of the finish field, to the Forestry Service for permission to use the forest, to Ian Brown for the running commentary and to all the riders and spectators for making the event what it is and for contributing so generously to the Liam Baxters chosen charity which will go some way to buying tandem bike for those who are visually impaired.


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