Successful Cooke Memorial Defence For Cardwell

Jonny Cardwell continued his rich vein of form with a successful defence of the coveted William Cooke Memorial Trophy at Aghadowey on Saturday night. The Ballinderry Stock Rod star, crowned British Champion just a fortnight ago, scooped a heat and final double to land the superb silverware. The meeting also saw a first ever final win for Donegal's Trevor McConnell in the 2.0 Hot Rods, whilst the other feature race winners were Dungannon's Ally Neill (Lightning Rods), local Aghadowey driver Ricky Bradley (Thunder Rods) and Meath's Declan O'Connor (Junior Productions).

Held annually in memory of the ace engineer and former driver from Kilrea, the William Cooke Memorial Trophy is a highly coveted award on the local scene. Qualifying heat victories fell the way of former World Champion Marc Morrell and Jonny Cardwell, the latter also scoring well in his other heat to land pole position for the final alongside Mark Crawford.
Crawford initially put Cardwell under some pressure in the final, but Jonny edged clear as the race settled down. Crawford did put up quite a fight as the race progressed, but Cardwell had more than enough in reserve to take the flag and successfully defend his title with Crawford a gallant runner up. Next home were Shane McMillan, Sam McNeice and Adam McFall.

A healthy field of 2.0 Hot Rods took to the grid, with the heats shared between Michael Woods and the returning Thomas Dilly.
The final saw Trevor McConnell, who had earlier lost the first heat win to a penalty, set the pace out front. He was tracked by returnee to the formula Thomas Dilly in his new RCE built car, with Thomas in turn holding off spirited challenges from Adam Heatrick and Ryan McCrory. McCrory was the one to show best however, as he clawed his way past Dilly to set off after the leader as the laps dwindled down. Ryan got right alongside McConnell on the run to the line, but it was a delighted Trevor who took his first ever victory on the ovals.

Mark Corry made good use of his blue grading to grab both heat wins in the Lightning Rods division, the Portadown man automatically elevating himself back to the star grade for the feature race of the night.
Ally Neill quickly hit the front in the final, but he was soon chased down by Mark McCambridge, with Corry and Stuart Agnew joining in the scrap soon after. McCambridge just couldn’t pull off the pass on Neill, before Corry almost made it past too. Mark was oh so close to getting ahead, but Neill held on resolutely to take a hard earned win over McCambridge and James McKinney in a blanket finish.

The Thunder Rods were all about local Aghadowey debutant Ricky Bradley, as he claimed both heat wins from the novice grade in some style.
An upgrade for the final was always going to make things much more difficult for Bradley, but he soon worked his way into contention once again. A late caution period saw leader Paddy Hannigan excluded for not obeying yellow flags and jumping the restart, and that opened the door for Bradley to complete his hat-trick on what became a dream debut on the ovals. Samuel Murphy, Chrissy Dempsey and Brendan Doherty filled the top places.

Declan O’Connor made the long haul from Co Meath worthwhile with victory in the opening Junior Productions heat, before Aaron Dynes claimed a great win in the second heat from the white grade. Lacey Bevan had a spell out front in the final, but O’Connor was the man on form as he swooped past to race clear for a popular victory. As Declan completed his double for the evening, Jack Morrow took second ahead of Stewart Hanna, Sam Percy and Matthew Weir.

Added 06/09/21