Hotshot Hylands Wins Hoosier Challenge Series

An exciting evening at Aghadowey Oval on Saturday September 12th saw the drivers thrill the fans with some close, competitive oval racing at the McKinney Safety Centre of Strabane sponsored meeting. Portadown’s World champion Adam Hylands was successful in the 2.0 Hot Rods Hoosier Tyres Challenge Series, with Loughgall teenager Casey Cherry collecting the Junior Productions King of Aghadowey crown after a fine drive.
Limavady ace Josh Goligher took the 1600 Rookie Bangers DMC Gold Cup after a dramatic evening, with the other feature race wins falling to Kilrea’s Jordan Nicholl (Thunder Rods) and young Loanends star William Brown (Ninja Karts).

2.0 Hot Rods
Seasoned Campaigner Colin McFarland led the opening stages of the first 2.0 Hot Rods heat before losing out to a fast moving Thomas Dilly. Thomas just held on for the win despite the late attentions of World Champion Adam Hylands. Heat two followed a similar pattern with McFarland and Dilly having spells ahead, before this time Adam Best found a way past Dilly to claim the victory over Ally Neill and Callum Doak.
The final of the Hoosier Challenge Series was lined up in aggregate points order from across the series, which saw World Champ Hylands on pole position. Despite a false start at the first time of asking, Adam soon settled into the lead and pulled clear for a resounding victory. Doak, James McKinney and Jake Devlin chased him home, with the top three all sharing new race tyres courtesy of Hoosier UK.

Junior Productions
The Junior Productions were on top form all evening, with some fantastic racing from the teenagers. Luke Goligher showed great pace to win heat one ahead of Casey Cherry and Leyton Hughes, before it was Ryan Berry who took the honours in heat two with Cherry again in second.
With the heat points totted up Cherry was on pole for the King of Aghadowey final, and he stormed clear to race home to a commanding win. Berry, Hughes and Jack Morrison filled the places. 1600 Rookie Bangers
The 1600 Rookie Bangers were down in numbers from the norm, but with feuds simmering below the surface there was action aplenty. Alan Goligher led the opening heat before Karl Smyth stormed past to win ahead of Steven Bolton, and as the action continued apace in heat two Smyth again claimed the win over Alan Haugh and Gavin Gamble.
Josh Goligher hit the front early in the final, and despite repeated efforts to stop him by David Gurney, Josh showed his experience to take a creditable victory in the DMC Gold Cup. Bolton, Smyth and Gamble were next home.

Thunder Rods
Once again the Thunder Rods were top value, with a big field of 24 cars in action. There was never a dull moment between the closely matched field, with Ballymena’s Brandon Kernohan the long time leader in heat one. Jordan Nicholl was flying though, and he pulled off a great pass to take the win over Kernohan and Adam McMullan. Heat two saw Sam Dougherty ahead, but he was challenged by Jason McMullan in the closing stages. McMullan hit the outside line on the last lap, and just dragged himself past on the run to the line to win by an incredible 0.008 seconds!
Kernohan and Dougherty again showed out front in the final, but this time it was Nicholl again who was catching the eye. He quickly went to the front and never looked back, winning from Joshua McMullan and Jason Darragh.

Ninja Karts
The kids in the Ninja Karts completed the programme, with Irish Champion Jack Murphy going from the back of the grid to the front in heat one to take the win in some style ahead of Joey Henderson and Jaxon Cairns. Heat two saw Harry Hoy the victor ahead of Murphy, that after on the road winner Jordan Davis was demoted to third for jumping a mid-race restart.
The final was all about William Brown, as he broke free from the yellow grade to open out a big advantage. From there he raced home to a very popular win ahead of Davis and Murphy.

Many thanks to our meeting sponsors, McKinney Safety Centre

Added 13/09/2026