McClure, Cherry & Cairns Win Big At Tullyroan

An exciting evening of racing in changing conditions at Tullyroan Oval on Saturday night, May 2nd, saw Portadown’s Ryan McClure scoop the final honours in the well subscribed 2.0 Hot Rods formula. The Junior Productions Golden Helmet saw local Tullyroan driver Casey Cherry take the title, whilst Portadown’s Jaxon Cairns was victorious in the Moffett Family Trophy for Ninja Karts.
The other feature races on the night saw Ballymena’s Gary Freeburn win the Tullyroan Challenge Cup for 1400 Stock Cars, whilst Ross Houston from Waringstown gave his new BMW a dream debut with a win in the Lightning Rods.

The opening heat for 2.0 Hot Rods saw a very busy raceway with a big grid on hand, and it was Ballymena man Chris McCloy who took the win, even overcoming a mid-race caution to lead home Ronan McNally and Adam Hylands. McCloy led early on again in heat two, but this time it was Ryan McClure who hit the front to win from Hylands and James McKinney.
The final was another exciting encounter, with McClure again demoting McCloy from the early lead to race home to his second win of the night, and in some style too. Hylands again took the runner up spot ahead of the rapid Jordan Rochford and McKinney.

Damp conditions made the going treacherous in the opening Junior Productions heat, with Jack Morrison powering through to take the flag. But he had grabbed the attention of the Steward during the race and was demoted in the final analysis. That handed the win to Jack Murphy ahead of Tony Calvin and Rowdy Grattan. Calvin the drove the race of his career in heat two, leading for much of the distance until pipped at the death by Jake Barnett who took the win. Austin Grattan followed Calvin home in third.
The final, for the stunning Golden Helmet Trophy presented annually by the McKeown family, saw Calvin and Murphy share the front row of the grid, but star man Casey Cherry quickly hit the front. As the race progressed defending champion Leyton Hughes moved through to second, but despite heaping plenty of pressure on the leader it was Cherry who took the title after a fine drive. Hughes, Morrison and Ryan Berry completed the top four.

A huge field of almost 30 Ninja Karts included visitors from England, Scotland and the Republic of Ireland. Sophie Evans drove superbly to lead the opening heat until well past half distance, before Jordan Davis swooped past to grab the win ahead of Jaxon Cairns and Denver Bevan. Heat two was another great race on a packed track, and this time it was Harry Hoy who took a great win ahead of Cairns and Cahan Bradley.
Evans held the lead early in the Moffett Family Trophy final, before Joshua Moore hit the front only for the young drivers to be brought to a halt by a caution period after a crash. On the restart Cairns wasted little time in grabbing the top spot, racing home for a splendid win over Ollie Williamson and Jack Murphy, the latter having been a very busy young driver having competed in both the Ninja Karts and Junior Productions throughout the evening.

After a busy period recently for the 1400 Stock Cars, numbers were down a little but that didn’t detract from the action on track. Michael Logan led the opener until Matthew McKinstry bumpered his way past as they took the last lap board. But he had shown his hand too soon, with Logan coming back hard into the final bend to come out on top ahead of McKinstry and Winston Weir. McKinstry then got his win in heat two, leading home Curtis McConkey and Logan at the chequered flag.
The closed grid Tullyroan Challenge Cup final saw McKinstry in the lead until he was dumped into the wall by Gary Freeburn, as World Champion Curtis Greer nipped past both to take it up. But Freeburn wasn’t done just yet, hitting back hard on the World Champ to go back ahead and power home to the win. Logan came through for second ahead of Greer and Josh McKinstry.

The Lightning Rods saw a much improved field including a debut for the new E92 BMW of Irish Champion Ross Houston. The opening heat saw the worst of the conditions, which played right into the hands of wet weather expert Nigel Jackson. He took the win over Mark McBurney and Houston. Heat two saw an impressive flag-to-flag win for Andrew Woods, as he led home returnee Tam Agnew and World Cup Champion Mark Corry.
Woods again caught the eye in the final, leading for much of the distance until the flying star duo of Houston and Jackson powered past. Jackson was tracking Houston’s every move, but Ross held on for a maiden win in his new car ahead of Jackson and Corry.