Local riders come out on top in weekend event at Seaforde

Local riders come out on top in weekend event at Seaforde

1 June 2016

COUNTY Down riders led the way during a grass track scramble at Seaforde on Saturday.

The event, held by the Mourne Motorcycle Club, featured four classes of competitors on motorbikes and sidecars each taking part in five fast paced six lap races.

The Evo class was first on the line with Temple rider Richard Watt up against Comber’s Stephen Gabbey and Michael Gibson for the race honours. 

In the first two races Watt led the pack off the line to win both races, followed home by Gibson in second and sixth, after he fought back from last place on lap one, and Gabbey came home in third and second positions. 

In the third race Gibson led off the line, but after one lap Gabbey and Watt had taken the front two positions. 

Gabbey held off Watt’s challenge to take the win and Gibson came home in third. In the final two races Watt led off the line to take two more wins, as Gabbey earned second and third in the final race, when he came back from last on the first lap, and Gibson came home in third and second positions.

The Grade C class was next on the line and Stephen Gabbey was out for a a cond time, winning all five races. 

He was followed home by Comber’s Ricky Suitor, who earned three second places, a third and a sixth place finish in the final race after he fell in the first corner and fought back from the back of the pack.

The Sidecars were next on the line with four Lisburn men leading the way. Ricky Portis and his passenger Roy Beattie won the first two races, before leading the third race on the last lap until mechanical problems ended their race and sidelined them until the final race when they took the chequered flag for the third time on the day. 

The other winners in the class were Hugh Evans and his passenger Ian Barron, who came home in second in the first two races, before winning the next two races and problems at the start of the final race left them to come home in fourth position.

The combined Grade A and Grade B class offered the final racing of the day, with Temple’s Richard Watt out again to lead the pack from start to finish in the first three races, before taking the five race wins.

He was followed home by Andrew McKibbin with three second places, a third and a fourth place finish and the top Grade B finisher Dion Johnston, from Ballyhoran, who earned two thirds, two fifths and a sixth placed finish.