Relentless Crockard Takes Carrickfergus Top Honours

The C&DMCC promoters are not just a fresh faced motocross club on the Irish off-road scene but instead are a rejuvenated club of old that are quickly pushing the boundaries of what has gone before by reinventing the recipe for successful events. Following on from the highly successful running of the initial two-day meeting held at Desermartin in 2010, the club up the stakes bringing the event to their hometown of Carrickfergus and to the picturesque Knockagh Hill Motoparc overlooking Belfast Lough. With a massive 200-plus rider line up that included a list of Ireland, Scotland and Wales top riders ensured a weekend of exciting race action. Combining it with plenty of family entertainment from bouncy castles to superslides made it an end of summer hit to all involved. With two races per class kicking things off on Friday, followed by three more on Saturday meant everyone would be put through their paces come the day’s end.

Tommy Merton was in the hunt all weekend long

With all eyes set on the Bodytech Premier class, it was the Relentless by TAS Suzuki of Gordon Crockard that was intent on stealing the limelight making short work of the wet slippery conditions on Friday grabbing both race wins. Saturday would be graced with one of the final days of summer sunshine, which quickly dried out the technical hillside track. It was the Bodytech KTM of Drew Goudy that holeshot the opening race followed by Crockard. With a full rider line up, it was inevitable somebody would taste the dirt in the charge to the first corner. That honour would go to both Robert Hamilton (G&G Ross Yamaha) and Michael Mahon (VMX Mahon). Hamilton would eventually work his way to fifth by the race’s end even after another crash midway through. However out front, Crockard quickly worked past Goudy with Richard Bird giving chase. Although at mid distance Bird had made a dent in Crockard’s lead it was one he would hold to the flag, upping his pace to eventually win by 11 seconds. After also suffering from a poor start the NoFear Kawasaki of Tommy Merton snatched third by the end of the race.

Again Goudy got the jump on everyone else in race two but this time Hamilton rounded the corner hot on his heels and by the end of lap one was out front. With Crockard back in fifth, Hamilton set about building a gap on the chasing pack. Without fluster, Crockard began making inroads into the pack. Picking off Merton in fourth, he then pushed past Bird holding second before getting within striking distance of Hamilton at the halfway point, but he wasn’t alone. Merton had sensed his plan by following Gordon’s every move and with the laps winding down the duo were out front. The crowd sensed a change of the lead, but Tommy couldn’t get close enough to put a pass down and had to settle for second.

Crockard sizes up Hamilton for a late pass

With the final race reduced to 15 minutes, Hamilton wasted little time hitting the front and rode the wheels of his Yamaha to gap everyone by almost seven seconds, while Crockard ran into troubles of his own. Snagging his foot in a rut left him with a lot of ground to make up in a distant fourth while Merton sensed a shot at the win bumping past Bird for second and halving the gap to Hamilton, while further back the pairing of Jim O’Neill and Michael Mahon were swapping paintwork over fifth spot. With the laps ticking down, Crockard had regrouped to third before edging his way past Merton. With two-laps left to go it seemed Hamilton had it in the bag. Leading into the final lap of the weekend, he had Crockard’s tracks covered, the win was almost his and it would have been if the chequers were waved a half a lap earlier! Hamilton pushed the edge to far and crashing in the final fleeting moments allowed Crockard through for win number five while Merton inherited second.

With a massive 120 rider entry for the Clubman class, it was split into three groups. The fastest 40 lined up in the Clubman Pro. Getting the nod for the overall win was Suzuki mounted Aaron Ashton, though it didn’t come easy. Winning the opening race on Saturday, Ashton got caught up in a first corner pile up in race two having to work his way back up to the front before grabbing another win in the final race of the day to steal the overall honours from Gareth Portis and Karl Thompson. The Clubman Class class win went to Clifford McCormick who took five out of five wins with David Kay second and Brian Rice rounding out the top three. Robbie Topping had a healthy winning margin in the Clubman Support.

Ashton led the way in Clubman Pro

Also on the race programme were both the quad and sidecar races. Michael McAneney was fastest of the four-wheelers easily winning all his races on Saturday. Ricky Toye chased home for second with Steven Toye third. With the sidecars only taking in Saturday’s race programme it was the pairing of Neil Campbell and Ross Graham who were the men to beat as they easily won each heat. Richard Portis and Noel Burrows took second with Hugh Evans and Ian Harron grabbing the final piece of silverware for third.

Campbell and Graham were an unbeatable sidecar act

Results: