Masterful Martin dominates meet at Leitrim with top class hat-trick

Masterful Martin dominates meet at Leitrim with top class hat-trick

8 July 2015

MOURNE Motorcycle Club hosted an evening motocross event last Wednesday, offering short, sharp races at Leitrim Motocross track.

The riders were separated into three classes and first to the line for the six lap races was the Grade C group one class. In the first race David Martin led at the end of the first lap and held on to take the chequered flag, as Killinchy’s Stephen Gabbey took second position on the last lap of the race. 

In race two Martin took the hole shot as Gabbey left the line in second position and challenged for the lead, but had to settle for second, as Martin took the win. In the third race Martin was quick to take the lead and the win, as Gabbey came from sixth position on lap one, to take second position and second overall in the class.

Next on the line was the Grade C group two class, with Stephen Gill winning all three races and the overall, as two men from south Down fought for third overall. In the first race Annacloy’s Matthew King took third position, as Ballynahinch’s Stephen Maitland came home in fourth position. 

In race two King finished fifth and Maitland finished in sixth. King led the race at the end of lap one, but had to settle for a fourth placed finish and third overall in the class, as Maitland came from fifth on lap one to finish in third position.

The final group of riders on the line was the combined Grade A and B class with Banbridge rider Ryan Adair and Loughbrickland’s Jason Meara fighting for top places. 

In the first race Adair led from the start to take the chequered flag, followed home by Dromara’s William Donnelly, Meara, Ballynahinch’s Stephen Kelly in fourth and Temple’s Richard Watt in sixth. 

Adair got the hole shot in race two and was challenged by Watt at the start, as Donnelly and Meara collided and fell on lap two, before Kelly moved into second at the half-way stage of the race. 

Adair led throughout to win the race as Kelly finished second, Meara came back to finish in fourth, Watt too fifth and Donnelly came home in tenth position. Adair led from the start of the final race, before Meara passed him and took the lead on the fourth lap. 

The two men had challenged each other throughout the race and traded places on the final lap before Meara finally took the chequered flag, with Adair in second, Donnelly in third Watt in fifth and a fall in the third lap when Kelly had been in third position ped him back to tenth position. 

With racing over, Adair was the top Grade A rider, ahead of Meara in second, with Donnelly in third and Colin McGregor was the overall winner in the Grade B class.