Motorcycle racing is back and Kerry riders are in form

Motorcycle racing is back and Kerry riders are in form

Motorcycle racing resumed at Mondello Park over the weekend and several Kerry-based riders but in strong performances in what was the first motorcycle race meeting in the Republic of Ireland since September 2022.
Earlier this year Tralee motorcycle racer Darragh Crean announced an ambitious programme of events for the year ahead which includes Road Racing in Northern Ireland, selected rounds of the British Superbike Championship and a potential Isle of Man debut at the Manx Grand Prix in August.
He used last weekend’s meeting to unveil the two different bikes he will race for the remainder of the season for Dublin-based DJ Racing this season.
He rode his usual Kawasaki ER6 to a brace of second places in the SuperTwin class over the weekend but did not finish his third race despite leading after the opening two laps (of 12),
He also raced a Yamaha R6 in his first-ever races in the SuperSport class and recorded two seventh-place finishes in the two (out of three scheduled) races he started.
Fellow Tralee racer Emmet O’Grady, on his first outing for the AK Thomas Bourne Racing Team, recorded a pair of fourth-place finishes and one fifth-place finish on his new-for-2024 Yamaha R6 in the SuperSport class.
He also contested the meeting’s three Superbike races and finished sixth and fifth in two races but failed to finish the second race on his TAG Racing Honda CBR 1000.
In the Moto 400 class, Andrew Murphy took two second places on his Honda VFR NC30

on Saturday but was back to winning ways on Sunday and now plans to contrast the Cookstown 100 Road Races this weekend.
He said: “Only one race on Sunday but we came away with the win which I’m very happy about. Unfortunately for Stephen Tobin who I was having a great battle with came down on the last lap handing the win to me. Two seconds and first puts us first in the championship now but a long season to go yet. It’s on to Cookstown next weekend for our first taste of real road racing.”

Stephen Heelan was a top-ten finisher in all three of his Supersport Cup races on board his Kawasaki ZX6R.
Tom McElligott Sr raced in the Production Twin class and finished eighth, fifth and seventh respectively in his three races riding a Suzuki SV,

---

---