Night of close finishes and first time winners

IT was a night of close finishes and first time winners at Aghadowey Oval on Saturday night (April 5th), as the sun drenched fans were treated to some great racing.

Portadown’s Jordan Rochford (2.0 Hot Rods) and Ballymena’s Bobbie Johnston (1300 Stock Cars) were both crowned King of Aghadowey in their respective formula’s, whilst there were heat and final doubles for both Cullybackey’s Keegan Turtle in the Junior Productions and Coleraine’s Mark McLaughlin in the Thunder Rods.

The Stock Rods also served up some fine action, with Portadown’s Rab Preston taking the trophy by the smallest of margins.

2.0 Hot Rods

The reversed grid qualifying system was in operation for the 2.0 Hot Rods, with former double World Champion Jordan Rochford taking the opener ahead of Drew McKeown and Ally Neill.

Broughshane’s Adam Weir continued his good run with victory in heat two, but all eyes were on Rochford who used the notoriously tricky Aghadowey outside line to haul himself past the field in the closing stages to superbly grab second in what was easily the drive of the night.

On aggregate points Rochford had annexed pole spot from McKeown, and when the green flag went down they settled into the top two spots.

McKeown just had no answer to Rochford’s pace, Jordan taking the King of Aghadowey with ease from McKeown and Aaron Stewart.

1300 Stock Cars

The 1300 Stock Cars were also chasing the King of Aghadowey title, the opening heat seeing a runaway win for Jonny Patterson from his generous yellow grading with Michael Logan second in his Toyota Starlet ahead of Fionn Donnelly.

Patterson again won heat two to take pole position for the main race, with Josh McKinstry’s stirring drive in the midst of a lively places battle netting him second ahead of Craig Bodenham.

The King of Aghadowey final was lined up in points order with a closed grid, and as expected the opening exchanges were very lively indeed! As the frontrunners rattled around the wall early on, Bobbie Johnston burst through to the lead, and despite the best effort of Matthew Milliken it was Bobbie who took the honours with Gary Freeburn in third.

Stock Rods

The opening Stock Rods heat produced a stunning finale, with the top three all coming to the line side-by-side.

It was the closest of finishes, with Declan O’Connor getting the nod by a hairs breadth from Harry Minish and Rab Preston.

Junior Productions graduate Minish again led the way in heat two, and once again he had O’Connor and Preston tracking him down from the handicap.

Harry this time just held on for his first ever senior win from O’Connor and Preston.

The final, unsurprisingly, again saw the same trio battle it out as the star graders struggled to get on terms

. Minish led but as the lap boards came out his night long adversaries had arrived to commence battle.

O’Connor went to Minish’s outside and edged narrowly ahead, only for Preston to find a gap up the inside of them both on the final lap to nip ahead. Rab took a fine win by another very fine margin, ahead of O’Connor and Minish, with Stevie McNiece next home in fourth.

Thunder Rods

The Thunder Rods are currently booming with a superb 24 cars on track. It was hectic going throughout the field all evening, with Mark McLaughlin racing past early leader Brian Hutton to win the opener by some distance.

Hutton and Liam Irwin completed the places, before Hutton went one better by grabbing his first ever win in the second heat ahead of Irwin and Liam Wilson.

Ballymena’s Brandon Kernohan had a spell ahead in the final before Hutton charged to the front, but McLaughlin was once again a man on a mission as he scythed through past Irwin to the lead to take his second chequered flag of the evening.

Mark even survived a late caution period and restart, with Irish Champion James Goldie getting the best of huge places scrap to take second from James Steele and welcome returnee Adam Graham.

Junior Productions

There was a first ever win in the Junior Productions for Jake Barnett in the opening heat, coming home ahead of Leyton Hughes and Jack Morrison.

Heat two saw another maiden victory, this time for recent Ninja Karts graduate Keegan Turtle in only his second ever meeting in the formula.

Keegan led home Ryan Abernethy Jnr and Charlie Johnston at the chequered flag.

The final saw an early yellow flag, which looked likely to change the face of the race.

But Turtle had other ideas, calmly settling into the lead once again despite the challenge of Johnston from behind. Keegan drove superbly to keep them all at bay and take his second win of the evening, with Johnston, Hughes and Casey Cherry filling out the places.

Next Meeting

The next meeting at Aghadowey Oval is on Easter Monday afternoon, April 21st, with a 1.30pm start time.

The Alan Connolly Memorial Trophy for Stock Rods is the headline event alongside Round 12 of National Hot Rods World Series NI.

The Ninja Karts King of Aghadowey plus Thunder Rods and Lightning Rods complete the holiday line up.

There is also race action at Tullyroan Oval near Dungannon on Saturday April 12th and on Easter Saturday April 19th, both with 6.30pm starts.