Flying Merton bags second Stewart Cup

Flying Merton bags second Stewart Cup

18 July 2012

TOMMY Merton may have no chance of retaining the premier Irish motocross championship, but he more than made up for that when he won the fifth round of the Rethink-backed series at Seaforde on Saturday.

The Comber-based rider was in scintillating form at the Knock Club event and crowned a glorious day when he lifted the coveted Tommy Stewart Memorial Cup for the second time.

“I had my first win back in 2000 when I was only a boy,” said Merton.

“So far as the present season is concerned, I dislocated my shoulder at the beginning of the year and that meant missing some of the early races.

“Thankfully, the shoulder is getting stronger and winning the Tommy Stewart is just the sort of tonic that I so badly needed. When you’re having fun you go fast.

“That’s what happened at Seaforde when I had two wins and a second place.”

Second overall was 21 year-old Michael Mahon from Dublin, who had his best ever results, two second places and a third. Wayne Garrett, who is still recovering from a fractured collarbone and Gary Gibson ended up with the same number of points, but third place went to Garrett as he had a better result in the final race.

Garrett increased his lead in the Irish championship with three rounds remaining and it will take something special to prevent him from lifting the title.

In the opening race it was Merton who virtually led for most of the race to beat Mahon by almost 10 seconds with Garrett third.

Mahon was the leader in the second race until Davy Gorman and Merton decided that they wanted a piece of the action.

Gary Gibson, the fastest qualifier, had time to weigh up the situation and when he hit the front, the race exploded into life.

Gibson held on for a dramatic win with the fast-finishing Merton just 0.7 of a second behind with Mahon third and Garrett fourth.

The third leg was even closer with Merton edging out Mahon in another thriller. There was just one-fifth of a second between them and the finish where Garrett was third.

The only hat-trick of wins on the day was recorded by Loughbrickland teenager Jason Meara, who dominated the semi-expert races.