Sunday the 10^th of April saw the West Cork Motorcycle Club(WCMCC) run their Annual Drag Race in Halfway, Ballinhassig. Those who turned out were in for an ideal day with hardly any wind and a fortune of sunshine. With 6 classes of bikes on the drag strip there was plenty for the crowd to watch and cheer for. There was no particular running order for the Practice and Qualifiers meaning that a 600cc road bike could come up against a professional Drag bike which made for great entertainment especially when the smaller bike came out on top against the bigger faster bikes. Following on from the qualifiers came the knockout rounds where bikes in the same class came up against each other , with the fastest proceeding to the next round. Swanton Motorcycle Accessories sponsored one of the two biggest classes, class C 401cc-600cc which saw great head to head battles between road bikes and race prepared bikes. It all came down to a well matched final between Declan Swanton and Paudie Keohane both on Yamaha R6 race bikes. It really came down to the wire with Paudie beating Declan by only a tenth of a second in a time of 10.387seconds.

Class F, 751cc-Unlimited was the biggest class of the day and was also a tight fight with Alan O Connor on his BMW RR up against Luke, “The Spook” Kingston on his Yamaha R1. Alan took his BMW to victory by a small margin of 0.26seconds. Alan was unbeaten all day and also set the second fastest time of the day which is a huge achievement.

Class B was a great class to watch with Paul Tobin on his Kawazaki ER650 and Ciaran O Callaghan on his Suzuki SV650 being the two favourites from the start of the day and neither let the side down with both riders appearing in the final. Ciaran got a great start and made the task harder for Paul who had already beaten him earlier in the day. It wasnt to be Pauls day being narrowly beaten by Ciaran at a time of 11.61seconds.

Class D was set for a battle between Noel Carey on a Suzuki GSXR 750 against Liam Keohane on a Honda VTR 1000. Liam didnt have a good start which gifted Noel an easy win.

Class E the Pre 98 bikes was to be an uncontested final with Ed McCarthy having a lone run on his Yamaha R1.

Then it all led to Class G also known as the Super Street Bike class which is full of super fast bikes. 8 bikes partook in this class with turbo, super charged and nitrous bikes. With all the power comes pain with some bikes just not performing as they were supposed to but for the bikes that did perform they gave a great show for the crowds. The final consisted of Craig Mallabone on his Suzuki GSXR 1300 Turbo against Denis Casey on his 1300 Super Charged Suzuki GSXR. This race did live up to expectations with Denis getting a better start than Craig but once they got into their stride Craigs bike had that bit more to get him over the line in 8.955 seconds and .8 of a second ahead of Denis.On speaking to some of the riders on the day they all confirmed that it lived up to their expectations and was a great day out.

When i spoke to the WCMCC representitive he was so thankful to the sponsors, riders, marshalls, race officials and to everyone who helped along the way and most of all to the fans who came out to support the club and riders. The next event on the calendar for WCMCC is the Munster 100 in August for more details, check out www.westcorkmotorcycleclub.ie

Well done to every one, male and female who took part in the drag today. Congrats to Paudie Keohane in the C class on winning an extremely competitive class. To top it all off we had a fantastic day weather wise and the wcmcc ran a great day of racing. A quick thank you to all the various sponsors that make these events possible like J T Motorcycles, Swanton Motorcycle Accessories etc which provide the prizes for each class.

wcmcc drag 11

sorry to anyone who's bike is not on i have so many . if you contact me i can show you some of your own bike

the WONKY DONKEY

Paul Tobin on his Kawazaki ER650.
Good luck this year to Paul Tobin , Sean Hurley and Declan Swanton on the tracks.

Adelaide Masters Round 1

The Motorcycling season in Ireland is now well and truly underway with some really entertaining racing in both Mondello park in Kildare and Vernon Mount here in Cork on Sunday last 3^rd of April. Rounds 1, 2 & 3 of the Adelaide Masters Series in Mondello Park provided fans with exciting racing but the riders from the south faced mixed fortunes with some wishing that they could forget the weekend. Declan Swanton from Carrigaline was on top of his game in race 2 advancing up to second position when unfortunately for him the bike died and was un-repairable for race 3. Emmet O’Grady from Tralee also suffered misfortune when he came off in race 1 on a very fast right hand corner resulting in him breaking his leg. Along with the agony of the leg break he will also miss the first 2 rounds of the British Supersport Championship in which he was due to contest. On a more positive note you had Sean Hurley from Ballinhassig who finished well in all 3 races and was the fastest of the Bridgestone Cup riders establishing a very nice lead at the top of the Cup points table.

Another Corkman racing was Paul Tobin from Carrigaline on his Kawasaki ER650 in the Supertwins Class. Paul had a steady weekend with a 5^th, 7^th &6^th in mixed conditions. Paul raced competitively last year for the first time and finished 3^rd overall in the MCUI Southern Centre Supertwin Championship. Paul is definitely one to watch this year.

Those who ventured to Vernon Mount on Sunday last were in for a surprise when they discovered World Superbike Rider and JAR team manager Jonathon Rea was in attendance with his rider Michael McCammond. The Cork rider Raymond Casey had his ups and downs and fell short of his own goals. He still got some Champonship points in the G & G Ross Irish Moto X Championship.