Race report - Craigavon, 10th October 2009  10/10/2009

We arrived to a wet track. It had been raining most of the night but had been drying over the course of the morning. Round 1 was wet, with Michael Sloan posting the fastest time of 15laps in 7m 2.47sec. Followed by David Cairns, John Campbell, Cormac Wyatt, Ashley Patterson, Scott McCallen & Tom Patterson.

Round 2 was a lot drier with few wet spots. A lot better Round for most people. Positions after Round 2.

Cormac Wyatt

Michael Sloan

Robert Charters

David Cairns

John Campbell

Ashley Patterson

Tom Patterson

Scott McCallen

Stephen Smyth

Round 3 of quailifying was the closest Round I have seen in Craigavon for a long time. The track had been getting better since Round 1. Overall the positions after Round 3.

Robert Charters 21laps 7min 11.41sec

David Cairns 20laps 7min 0.74sec

Michael Sloan 20laps 7min 5.50sec

Cormac Wyatt 20laps 7min 8.34sec

Stephen Smyth 20laps 7min 20.67sec

John Campbell 19laps 7min 7.32sec

Ashley Patterson 19lap 7min 17.07sec

Tom Patterson 17lap 7min 16.37sec

Scott McCallen 13lap 7min 24.83sec

The Main final was set to be a close one. With 1^st to 4^th place relatively close there was bound to be a number of position changes. At the start Robert Charters was unlucky to have a stalled engine. This let David Cairns claim the lead into the first corner. A better start from Cormac gave him the opportunity to slip past Michael on the inside but they were both close to David in the first lap.

All 3 were close together. Cormac was pressurising David trying to find a clean gap past him in the second lap. They touched slightly and David went out of position. Cormac stopped to let David back past but this gave Michael the chance to go past both of them. Cormac then found a gap past David on the next corner. On lap 3 it was Michael followed by Cormac & David. Cormac was putting more pressure on Michael trying to get past then at the end of the 3^rd lap disaster struck for Cormac. After the chicane he lost right hand steering and rolled onto the grass. He went into the pits and it turned out to be a sheered bolt in bottom of the left front hub. With Cormac out this left Michael and David to battle it out. It was close racing and brilliant from both drivers. For so many laps Michael stayed ahead of David, just about keeping him away. Then at the end of the corner after the straight Michael made a slight mistake and this gave David the chance of take advantage and take the lead. Michael regained composure and kept close behind David, pushing for a gap past. This lasted until lap 33 when Michael had a broken fuel pipe which was leaking fuel to the back of the car and spraying onto the rear tyres. It was an unfortunate problem and ended a great battle between him and David.

David had a clear run from then on and finished 1^st even after running out of fuel on the 29^th lap. Final positions at the end of the final:

1^st David Cairns 86laps 29min 17.59sec

2^nd Stephen Smyth 83laps 30min 15.34sec

3^rd John Campbell 69laps 30min 20.62sec

4^th Michael Sloan 33laps 11min 28.69sec

5^th Robert Charters 17laps 7min 49.13sec

6^th Tom Patterson 15laps 6min 50.79sec

7^th Cormac Wyatt 4laps 1min 44.73sec