Kirk exacts revenge on Rainey with St Angelo race wins

Christian Elkin ahead of Robert Kennedy at St. Angelo. Picture: Roy Adams.

There was some great racing at St. Angelo as the Enniskillen 100 Revival Group ran an ISB round in conjunction with the Cookstown club.

After running second to Ryan Rainey twice at Kirkistown the previous weekend, Dromara’s Alastair Kirk exacted his revenge.

In the opening Superbike race Kirk was unable to put any big break together, but still done enough to win by .3 of a second from Crumlins Ryan Rainey. On a Supersport bike, for some reason, Korie McGreevey finished third, over 20 seconds back. Held on a wet track after a shower of rain, the second race saw Kirky blast away from the line, chased hard by Rainey and the rest of the field. Pulling over a second a lap out of everybody else, Ali took the win from the almost too cautious Ryan Rainey by 8.7 seconds while Philip McNally took a fine third place. That leaves Ali Kirk just a single point behind Rainey going towards the last couple of meetings of the year.

Providing some of the best racing of the weekend, the Supersport 600 class was well worth the drive to Enniskillen on its own. Jason Lynn was the start to finish winner in the first outing, working hard to hold off a stern challenge from Randalstown man Christian Elkin. Elkin had his nose ahead a few times but Lynn fought back and managed to grab the race win by .1 of a second. In third, Korie McGreevey was well in touch with the top two.

Antrim's Peter Fletcher flat out on the back section.

After slipping off in the first race, Robert Kennedy, on a treacherously damp circuit, took a hard earned win in the second race. Again, it was Elkin who provided the main opposition, but the former NW200 winner just couldn’t manage to get ahead of the Dundrod man, who took the win by 1.6 seconds.

There was a double win in the Production Twin category for Antrim’s Luke Hazlett. In the first race the local man got the better of his main championship rival, Droghedas Mark McConville, by 2.7 seconds, while the very much improved Kevin Baker finished a close third. Hazlett became involved in a dog fight in the second race, just managing to squeeze ahead of Jonny Hamill in the final few laps. Hamill, in turn, held off a determined McConville to take second.

Run concurrently with the Production Twins, the first leg of the Supertwin class gave Christian Elkin the narrowest of wins over Aaron Armstrong. The Lisnaskea lad was all over Elkin for most of the race, even showing him a wheel at the final corner a few times. At the line there was just .03 between them, with Ross Patterson taking third, well back. Armstrong led the second race until he threw it away near the end of the third lap. Ross Patterson and Christian Elkin were the two main men then, with the Antrim lad holding his nerve to get the better of Elki by 3.3 seconds.

In the ISB/F1E/Supersport Cup race, Stephen Montgomery, from nearby Fivemiletown, had a couple of useful wins in the 600 class. He finished over 10 seconds ahead of Alan Armstrong in the first outing, while Thomas Lavin pushed Armstrong hard for most of the race.

Antrim's Ross Patterson gets the power down in the Supersport 600 race.

Things weren’t just so cut and dried for Montgomery in the second race. Armstrong was well within pouncing distance at the end, and just failed, by 2.5 seconds to get a win. David Duffy finished third. John Shearer was a double winner in the ISB Cup class. He beat Alan Fisher by nearly 27 seconds in the first race, and was the only finisher in race two.

Run with the Cup races, Ballycastle man Charles Stewart was an easy winner of both encounters. In the first he was 15.6 seconds ahead of Chris Campbell, while in race two, Campbell cut that to 1.3 seconds.

Andrew Brady had a double in the Pre Injection races. He was being chased hard in the first one by Steven Titterington, but the Bangor man slowed off when he was covered in fuel after the filler cap came adrift on his R6, dropping him to fourth. It gave Brady the break he needed, but the Rosslea man didn’t slow, even breaking the PI lap record. At the end Brady was 17 seconds ahead of Stephen McKeown, while Roger Aiken took third.

Despite being red flagged, due to rain, after all riders had completed half distance, the second race wasn’t restarted. Half points were awarded. Stevie Titterington sorted out his filler cap problem and was able to take the second race to Brady, but the Fermanagh man had the measure of him, winning by over 4 seconds. McKeown finished in third place.