By Rising roads talents a plenty were on short circuit duty for the first round of the Ulster Superbike series, at Bishopscourt on Saturday, as racers gained more valuable track time prior to the 2019 roads season.
McAdoo Kawasaki’s Adam McLean, making his first competitive appearance of 2019, was quickly back into the groove, showing accomplished, high quality form within the feature Ulster Superbike Championship races.
Third within the opening premier class encounter, the re started second seven lap Superbike race, saw the reigning Ulster GP Super Twins victor claim an excellent 2nd place finish, finishing just over 1.2 seconds behind BSB points finisher, prospective North West 200 debutant Carl Phillips.
Photo by Rod Neill
Alongside McLean’s exploits, the big bike encounters also saw Newcomers A Manx GP champion, fellow next generation roads exponent Thomas Maxwell amass series of 11th place finishes.
Outside of 1000cc action, Saturday’s competition at Bishopscourt also saw multi Ulster GP victor Christian Elkin, Dafabet Devitt Racing’s Paul Jordan acquire rostrum finishes, after enthralling Supersport battles.
Darryl Anderson, current Lightweight Manx GP champion Darryl Tweed shared the Production Super Twin class spoils, whilst the yesteryear classic races also provided victories for racers from road racing backgrounds, with Philip Shaw, Brian Mateer and Nigel Moore claiming respective Classic 1000, Classic 250, Classic 350 class successes.
Words by Stevie Rial
