Irish motocross titles for Richard Bird and Jason Meara

In the two premier classes Richard Bird clinched the MX1 title while Jason Meara was crowned MX2 champion.

It was Loughbrickland’s Jason Meara who had the MX2 title in the bag after the second race finishing second in both races behind in form James Mackrel.

With the title won Meara rode like a champion to easily win the third race of the day leading from gate to flag from Mackrel.

“I’m chuffed to win the Irish Championship now for the fourth time and all done on machinery from Norman Watt Motorcycles,” said Meara.

“The continuous support from Norman and Ricky is overwhelming and I could not keep going without them. I was fastest in qualifying by over two seconds but the racing didn’t go as planned. My pace was good but silly mistakes cost me in the first two races. I finally pulled off a good start in the last race and went on to win by about 30 seconds, so it was nice to finish the day with a good result.”

It was race three before Lisburn’s Richard Bird could finally get his hands on the MX1 title. His job was certainly made easier with his nearest rival John Meara absent from the meeting but it wasn’t all plain sailing for the Five5 Motorsport KTM rider. He won his opening race comfortably from 20-year-old Dondonald Honda rider James Mackrel but in race two a crash at turn one meant Bird had to come through from 15th on lap one to second by the flag behind Mackrel. Bird made sure of the championship with a perfect ride in race three beating Robert Hamilton on the Risk Racing Honda with Sean Devlin third.

“It is my third MX1 title of my career and it is good to get it wrapped up with a round to spare,” explained the champion.

“With John not there it took the pressure off. I had a good start in race one and pulled away to control the race from the front but it was a different story in race two. I got caught up going down the hill into turn one and crashed. I was lucky I didn’t get hit by any of the bikes coming from behind.

“Then the peak on my helmet worked loose and when I braked, it came down over my eyes and I couldn’t see where I was going. Second was the best I could do in that one. Race three was straight forward as I made a decent start and pulled away to win.”

Ballygowan’s Johnny Presho won the MX1 semi expert title while Dublin teenager Lee Coffey won the MX2 semi expert title. Jordan Wade lifted the clubman MX1 championship while former Grand Prix start Laurence Spence took home the veterans title after three victories on the day.

Lisburn’s Gary Moulds and passenger Steve Kirwin move into second place in the British sidecarcross title race behind reigning champion Stuart Brown after a brilliant second overall at the latest round of the series at Dean Moor in Cumbria.

Moulds led race one before Brett Wilkinson passed him for the win before the finish. He was second in race two again behind Wilkinson but the gremlins struck in race three with the clutch slipping leaving the local man to just hold on to third at the flag.

“I’m over the moon,” Said Moulds. “On Saturday we won all three races in the Northern Series and that set us up nicely for Sunday’s British races. We got the holeshot in race one and led for the first six laps before Brett Wilkinson got by to win.

“In race two we were second into turn one and battling for the lead with Tony Graham until Wilkinson again got past to take the win. Wilkinson got the holeshot in race three with us lying a comfortable second until the clutch started slipping and we had to fight hard to hold on to third from a determined Tony Graham.”

Gary’s big sister Emma had her first racing outing since injuring her arm back in April when with passenger Alan Gardner managed a 16th a 15th and a 14th, while Niki Adair from Randalstown passengered English driver Dan Goodall to 11th, 14th and 14th in the three races.