Tullyroan Title Wins For Murray & Jackson

Packed girds and top class racing was the order of the day at Tullyroan Oval on Saturday night, October 3rd, as Galgorm’s Shane Murray won the Ulster Championship for National Hot Rods and Portadown ace Nigel Jackson secured a stunning tenth Lightning Rods Irish Championship title.
Other feature races on the night saw wins for Reading based driver Ethan Dilly (2.0 Hot Rods), Balbriggan’s Ryan Carroll (Stock Rods) and Ballycastle’s Andrew McLean (Thunder Rods).

National Hot Rods
Kells driver Carl Sloan really got up to speed with his new car in the National Hot Rods heats, storming home to win the opener over Jeff Riordan and Shane Murray before repeating the feat in heat two once he had cleared early leader Davy Clarke. Murray and Derek Martin chased him home in that one.
The World Series NI Round 4 final, for the Ulster Championship, saw Sloan quickly ahead but with Murray soon tracking his every move and World and British Champion Glenn Bell not far off either. Murray was under Carl at one stage, with his hard slamming of the door attracting a warning from Race Control. There were two caution periods to heighten the drama at the front, one for a huge crash on the back straight which eliminated a number of cars. The laps dwindled down with Sloan hanging on out front, but after taking the flag he was demoted to third for the earlier misdemeanour. That elevated Murray to the top of the podium ahead of Bell, with Sloan having to settle for third at the end of a fantastic night of high speed racing under the floodlights.

Lightning Rods
Before the Lightning Rods Irish Championship even began there was drama, as there was a coin toss between joint top points scorers Conor Doherty and Mark McBurney to decide who would take pole position. Conor won the toss and led the opening half dozen laps, but he had World Cup Champion Nigel Jackson breathing down his neck. Seasoned campaigner Jackson pulled off a superb outside line move to take the lead and race to the win for his tenth Irish Championship title. Doherty and Ian Hobson completed the top three.
The reversed grid Irish Revenge race saw Ross Houston take victory over Ricky Shaw. 2.0 Hot Rods
Another pleasing field of 2.0 Hot Rods delivered three very entertaining races. Novice Mark Taylor led the opener until Ethan Dilly powered past to win from a rapid Jordan Rochford and Rob Barnett. Heat two saw Dilly again battling for the lead with Vince Litter, but things became more than ragged between the pair and they both attracted penalties for some questionable driving tactics. That handed the win to Ally Neill ahead of Adam Best.
Taylor led the early stages of the final before Dilly went ahead, the now Reading-based Dungannon driver making his trip home worthwhile as he completed his double for the night. Rochford and Callum Doak looked very racy in second and third, with World Champ Adam Hylands next home.

Stock Rods
The Stock Rods were dominated all evening by Ryan Carroll, the young Balbriggan novice taking the opening heat by a distance from Sam Wilson and Jamie Cardwell, before repeating the feat in heat two ahead of Sam Wilson and David Wilson.
In the final Ryan took a few laps to relegate early leader Lacey Bevan, but he then quickly established himself out front. Such was his pace that they just couldn’t close him down, and he completed a faultless hat-trick of wins in fantastic style. Sam Wilson, Darragh O’Shea and David Wilson were next home.

Thunder Rods
The Thunder Rods grid again broke the 20-car barrier, with Norman Purdy the winner of heat one ahead of James Goldie and Liam Wilson. The reversed grid heat two saw James Steele out front before Andrew McLean pulled off a great move from third to first in one fell swoop to take the chequered flag ahead of Lee McCloy and Jason McMullan.
That was enough to land McLean pole position for the Tullyroan Challenge Cup final, and he duly romped home for a great win with Purdy, Goldie and Wilson next across the line.

Added 05/10/2026