Sorry guys for not getting the race report to you sooner but I had lost my pen and was too busy racing to find another!! Well where can I start? – I guess the best place would be the beginning of the season . .

20^th March – Bishopscourt:  1^st outing of the year and I couldn’t wait to get my butt back in the saddle. The day started of damp so the track was slippy for qualifying but I got pole on dry tyres. The first race went well as the track was now dry and I won by 25 seconds and was quite happy with that. Second race was similar – I won it by 19 seconds so we were happy all round!

11^th April – Mondello:  2^nd outing and the sun was splitting the trees but I managed to sleep in so I only woke 5 minutes before qualifying! I was still half asleep on the bike but somehow I managed to get pole – happy days! Race one I got the hole shot and won the race. It was the same in the second race and I was only 2 tenths of my the lap record which I still hold from last year.

3^rd May – Bishopscourt:   This was a Monday and how cool is it to be racing on a school day (but school was off any way as it was May Day). I qualified Pole – starting to like the front row! First race went well. I won it by a good margin but it was the second race that got interesting as one of the other Aprilia riders upped his game and came close to me so I had to put my head down and arse up and roll back the throttle and got the win!

8^th May – Kirkistown:  All looking good for today as the sun was out. I was buzzing and couldn’t wait to race. Qualifying started. The bike went well for 1.5laps then I got a black flag to come in as my bike was smoking so much but I still managed to qualify second. They quickly pulled my bike down and saw all the cogs in the gearbox side were broken. Just looking at it I thought my day’s racing was over. There was no way Ian, Ryan and my Dad could get the bike ready for the first race. So I huffed off round the pits thinking it would not be fair that everyone else would be racing and not me. But when I returned to the van I could not believe it. My bike was fixed. I think the Guinness book of records should have been there as it must have been the quickest engine rebuild ever (39 minutes!!) On the first race, my dad told the race officials that the bike would be a bit smoky still for a lap or two as the oil had got into the pipe and needed to be cleared out. The official said he would watch and see what he thought. So I did my warm up lap and the official told me to get off the track. I was not a happy boy! But what could we do. So we wheeled the bike back to the van and thought the day was over. We were parked just across from a rolling road so we got the bike on it and let it run until the pipe was clear of oil. Now we were ready for the second race with only minutes to spare! So helmet on, bike started and over to the grid. Here we go – sitting second on the grid. I got the best start of my life so far and I had a great race, finishing 1^st and I broke the lap record by over a second! I couldn’t believe we got such a good ending to a disaster of a day!

5^th June – Kirkistown:  Qualified Pole and won the race by 12 seconds and watched the second race from Colonial as my bike stopped whilst I was out in front. That’s life and you just have to take the good with the bad.

Last but most important, without the following people, I would not be able to race so a big thanks to:

Ian McClenaghan IMR (Top Man!)

Tim and Sonya Martin

G.S. Motorcycle Club

S.G. Johnson

M & J Dunlop

Big Tex

Ryan

And many more – sorry if I left anyone out!!