Report and race results: Ulster Championship RD4 – Laurelbank

After plenty of rain coming into the event, Laurelbank offered a very slippery circuit for the fourth round of the Ulster Motocross series. Due to a class in the MX National series taking place on the same weekend, some of the heavy hitters decided to race in England instead but it was still good racing at the front.

Tommy Merton at 40 years old decided to race to prepare for the Vets Des Nations taking place at Farleigh Castle next month and he certainly showed the younger riders how to ride a slippery, old-school track which required plenty of throttle control.

In the opening moto, Merton was leading on the opening lap but then went down which demoted him to fourth but he was able to make passes on McCrum, Smith and Adair to win the first moto of the day.

In race two, it was looking like Luke Smith upped his game and was looking good at the front but Merton bided his time and made his move towards the end of the race. Smith faded back to fourth with Adair taking another strong second spot ahead of Jay McCrum.

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The best racing of the day came in the final moto with Merton, Adair, Smith, McCrum and Nathan Green all locked together for the majority of the race. Yet again, Merton’s experience came out on top. Nathan Green was mighty impressive as he really improved in the final moto of the day and despite a goggle issue he was still able to pass Smith to cross the line in fourth – he was happy over the finish line. Green can feel hard done by in not getting selected to race the 450cc for team Ireland at the Coupe de l’Avenir.

It wasn’t the best day for Luke Smith finishing fourth overall but with Jason Meara not racing he has a good shot of winning the title now at the final round taking place next month.

Talking of championships, it was a good day for Conor Mullan as he secured the Ulster MX2 title with a round to go – he’s another rider who was unlucky not to get selected for the Coupe de l’Avenir for team Ireland this year.

In the semi-expert classes it was Ross Adair (MX1) and Niall Cregan (MX2) who had the perfect day winning all three of the moto’s.

Norman Scott almost had the perfect day in the Clubman MX1 class but a bad start in the last moto of the day cost him all three moto wins but nevertheless he clinched the overall. Jack Willis had a good day in the Clubman MX2 class edging out Colin Ross to clinch the overall.

See the overall results below including all the youth action:

Overall Results:

Expert MX1:

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