Dromara teenager grabs maiden win

14 May 2014

THE 2014 edition of the prestigious Brian Bell Memorial Trophy, promoted by the Temple Club at their Laurelbank circuit near Saintfield, will long be remembered by Dromara teenager Ross Adair as the event where he won his first ever motocross race.

The race is held to commemorate the life of Temple Club’s Brian Bell who was tragically killed in an industrial accident in his home village of Moira, Brian was one of a number of Moira brothers who were

successful motocross and road racers during the 1960s and 1970s.

The format is unusual in that each class qualifies through three races for the feature event, which is run as a handicap with the clubman riders getting a full lap advantage over the premier riders.

In the qualifying Clubman MX2 races, young Ross, aboard the Adair Building Services Suzuki 250, finished on the podium with a second, a third, and in the last race, a superb win by 10 seconds over Ryan Calvert.

This qualified Ross for the feature race where over 20 minutes plus two laps, twice his usual race distance, the game teenager beat his older premier class brother Ryan to 20th place in the 39 man field, top clubman MX2 rider.

The rest of Armagh members didn’t fare quite as well, with Markethill teenager Scott Bailey suffering a bad crash and ending the day with a suspected broken collar bone in the combined Semi Expert/Premier Class races.

Dromara’s Ryan Adair on the 450 Adair Building Services Suzuki scored a 4th, 7th & 8th in the premier qualifying races, but only managed a disappointing 22nd in the feature race, while Greyabbey’s Craig Browne on the Smoke

Vent KTM 450 scored three

ninth places in the qualifiers, with a creditable 14th in the feature.

Semi Expert rider Aaron Ashton on the two stroke KTM 250 managed two 9th places and an 8th place in qualifiers, sat out the feature race to enjoy the

excitement of spectating and watching the fine display of racing put on by the top four.

As previously mentioned, young Scott Bailey crashed out of qualifying race three after posting superb results of 8th & 5th in the first two.

Not a huge number of club members racing, but a great day’s sport was enjoyed by those who did turn up, with great value for money for riders and spectators with 4 races each, and the day over for 4.30pm.

Congratulations to Ross Adair, and also to club member Glynn Forsythe who was working as clerk of the course at his first adult event for a slickly run promotion.

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