Brilliant Buchan storms his way to treble glory

Brilliant Buchan storms his way to treble glory

29 October 2014

REIGNING Pirelli National Superstock 1000 champion Danny Buchan scored a hat-trick of wins at Bishopscourt on Saturday on his way to lifting the the coveted Sunflower Trophy.

Buchan showed that the only way was most definitely the Essex way when he added the Finlay Foods Sunflower Trophy to his British Superstock championship title.

The Essex lad didn’t disappoint the fans who braved the bitter cold conditions as he swept to glory on his Tsingtao Racing Kawasaki. Runner-up in the Sunflower race was Ben Wilson with Jordanstown’s Andy Reid third.

“I feel privileged to add my name on the Sunflower Trophy along such names as Joey Dunlop, Michael Laverty and Jonathan Rea,” Buchan said.

“The Irish fans were great today and to take away three wins for Tsingtao Racing Kawasaki on my last weekend racing on the bike is the icing on the cake,” said Buchan.

“Thanks to everyone who made both my championship possible and to everyone for giving me great support today at the Sunflower.”

Carrickfergus’s Glenn Irwin, who will remain in the Gearlink Kawasaki squad for a full-on British Supersport title assault in 2015, was an impressive four-time winner, including a Supersport double at Saturday’s meeting.

The 24-year-old’s success may have been overshadowed slightly by treble winner and Sunflower Trophy feature race victor Buchan, but Irwin was the stand out local performer.

The former double Irish Supersport champion and five-time winner in 

this year’s British Supersport Championship eased to victory in both Supersport races.

Firstly, he shrugged off the challenge of former mentor Alastair Seeley in race one, followed by his Gearlink Kawasaki team-mate Ben Wilson in race two.

Such was his pace, Irwin set a new track lap record at Bishopscourt for the Supersport class in the opening encounter, with a lap time of 1min:07.474s, averaging some 97.317mph.

His Supertwin double was nothing short of prolific, with a 12 seconds rout in race one over Robert Kennedy and Korie McGreevy, from Ballynahinch, increasing that to 15 seconds in race two over Kennedy and Nico Mawhinney, who was making his Supertwin debut at the local circuit.

Reid’s performance at Bishopscourt was also worthy of high praise. The 21-year-old was afforded the Bishopscourt opportunity by SMR team owner Shaun Muir after finishing second in this season’s National 600cc series, and he didn’t let anyone down.

After a race one slip off, the Jordanstown lad put the Milwaukee Yamaha British Superbike machine on the Sunflower Trophy feature race podium, behind Buchan and Wilson, proving that he will be one to watch on the all new 1000cc Yamaha in next season British Superstock series.

Irwin also set a new track record for the class (1min:11.293) taking a massive 1.4 seconds out of the previous best set by Keith Amor at Easter.