ANNOUNCEMENT - The results of Round 1 of the Watt Motorcycles Youth Grasstrack Championship have been taken offline and are CURRENTLY UNDER REVIEW. Apologies for any inconvenience, we will update you when they are back on-line. Ryan

Sunday 13th May 2012 (Delayed) – Ref: ‘CDMCC12_PR06’

May’s bank holiday weekend marked the beginning of this seasons Adult Grasstrack Championship, again promoted by the Carrickfergus & District Motorcycle Club in association with Norman Watt Motorcycles. It was a day when reigning Expert Champion got his title defence off to a great start under the summer’s sun at the re-jigged Dalway’s Bawn circuit, on the outskirts of Carrickfergus. An entry of over 170+ competitors packed themselves into the paddock eager to get racing underway and make use of the fantastic weather at the East Antrim venue.

A late entry from Watt Motorcycles Kawasaki rider Tommy Merton, making his return after a lengthy lay off with a shoulder injury would have been enough to ruffle 2011 Champ Richard Bird’s feathers pre-race. Merton took to the track looking like he never left it, powering into an early lead in race one with Bird back in fifth at the end of the first lap. Although Bird (Suitor Brothers/Watt Racing) fought his way through into second position in a matter of laps the damage had already been done with Merton enjoying a comfortable opening race win. Behind them Andrew McLarnin and Richard Watt were neck and neck most of the race before Watt squeezed his way into the final podium position with two laps to go to take third in race one.

As the title says folks, results from the first round of the Adult and Youth grasstrack series are now online under the 'Results' section of the website.

Please note: Alot of time is spent trawling through lap scoring charts to put these results together so you will understand that mistakes can be made. If you find any mistakes/typos can you please inform us via info@carrickfergusmcc.co.uk and we'll check it out.

Apologies for the delay in publishing the results, no transponders here so it is more time consuming to sort through them.

Neil McKeown's race recap video is now online and is featured on the homepage and this will be followed by a race report very soon, better late that never eh?

Now that we have had 24 hours to recover from yesterdays grasstrack season opener at Dalway's Bawn, we would like to publicly thank all that turned out to support the event! We started the day aiming to get practice and 4 races for each class but we never thought it'd be finished at 4pm aswell leaving plenty of time to get home for the cup final.

Thanks must go to the competitors for turning out in numbers (70+ Youth & 170+ Adult) and also for your conduct throughout both adult and youth meetings, aiding in the running of the event. We had a 2&4 wheel representative in attendance yesterday so you have collectively presented a great image of the sport.

Finally we would like to thank our series sponsor's, Norman and Ricky from Watt Motorcycles, Roy Neil for first class commentary as always, The Timekeepers who had possibly the most difficult job of the day, The first aid, The landowner, the officials, the track marshals and anyone else who helped to make this event possible.

See you all at Round 2 at the same venue. Youth on Tuesday 29th and Adult on Wednesday 30th May. Entry forms are on our website www.carrickfergusmcc.co.uk.