NIF2.com - 2013 - #17 - Tullyroan Oval

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Added: 13 May 2013	Category: 2013 Oval Racing
2013 - #17 - Tullyroan Oval - 11/5/13
To be honest I could have written most of this blog piece before I left the house to go to the racing, and just filled in the winners and the weather, and I was tempted to do that, but just ran out of time before I needed to get down the road. For the first time in a long time we’d a scenario of having clashing meetings in Northern Ireland, and two quite high profile meetings at that, with the Saloon Irish Masters at Ballymena clashing with a National Hot Rod world qualifying round at Tullyroan. Even at the time of making the fixtures this was an issue that could have worked out so much differently, a low turnout of saloons and it became a no brainer to go to Tullyroan or if the Nationals World Qualifying series was tied up by now and the Ninja Karts hadn’t become the success they have, then it would have been a no brainer to go to Ballymena for the saloons. As it turned out there was a fantastic booking list of saloons for Ballymena, the NHR points is “duck’s arse” tight for the last two qualifying places and the Ninja Karts have been the surprise package of the 2013 season so far. My photographer license is signed off as a Tullyroan Oval photographer, so no matter what happened I’d have been at Tullyroan. I am however disappointed to have missed the Saloons this year. not just because they’d a great turnout, but they are a class I don’t see an awful lot of throughout the season even on my travels. I’m sure there was people at Ballymena last night who’d like to have seen the Nationals too, really someone moving their meeting to a Friday night would have got more people in the gates in total, and those of us who would have liked to have been at both meetings could have been. Here is the positive from it all though, Tullyroan had a good size crowd at it, Ballymena I’m also told had a good size crowd at it, and I’ve flicked through Davy Park’s photos and it looks as if they did have a good crowd there, so even when there is clashing meetings they still managed to pull in decent crowds. It does however raise the question where some of these people are the rest of the time, or more so, how do we get this amount of people in the gate more regularly? Does any of it come down to Saturday being a better night for it? Moving onto the racing itself, there was a fantastic turnout of cars at Tullyroan and for the second meeting in a row there was visiting Scottish cars for what was just a domestic meeting, this time in the form of the ProStock of Ian Taylor. The Ninja Karts got the meeting underway and the drama began only a few laps in when Shea Fegan went head on into the turn four wall bringing the first stoppage. Adam McFall took the win from the restart and went on to take the final later in the meeting. The second heat went the way of Matthew Nicholl. The ProStocks had another fantastic turnout with 36 cars in track for heat one and two further cars racing later in the meeting, as has been the case in the ProStocks this season there was a number of new drivers and fresh, well presented cars out on track, which always makes for a good photo when they are fresh, but they don’t seem to stay like that too long. I need to give a mention to one of my road trip buddies Darren Pearson who made his debut and had an eventful evening but still brought the car home in one piece, so he did something right. Stefan McClelland was a notable casualty of the first heat, going into the wall hard in turn three which looked like it could be the end of that car. Allen Cherry took the opening heat, then was awarded heat two when Jack Gilpin was loaded up for a technical infringement having been first across the line. Cherry went on to take the final win from the front of the closed grid. In the 2.0 Hot Rods Stuart Cochrane took all three wins, leading home Derek Martin in heat one and Adam Hylands in heat two. The final became a race of attrition with several cars getting involved in tangles, Cochrane led home Bobbie Johnston and Adam Heatrick. As the Nationals draw even closer to the end of their qualifying series for the World final things are starting to become increasingly tight in the points, with 4 cars now in close contention of picking up the last two places on the world final grid. Terry Maxwell won the opening heat with John Christie the highest placed in that battle for the last two spots. Glenn Bell took a comfortable win in heat two, which seen the debut of Tim Hazlett, who became the 100th car on track during the meeting. Ian McReynolds led home a Dilly Roofing Supplies 1-2 in the final with Thomas Dilly himself in second. With two rounds to go it’s getting even tighter to qualify. In the Lightning Rods there was an opening heat win for Ben McKee after Gordy McKee’s car spluttered and he pulled off when he looked to have had the win in the bag. Mark Taylor won the second heat and was leading the final until the back end locked going into turn three spinning him on front of the pack where he was collected by second place man Gary Beggs. Dane Ferry took the lead from the restart and went on to take the win. In the ProStocks Ladies Race there was a win for Lauren McIlroy Car Turnout: 102 Cars (17 Ninja Karts, 38 ProStocks, 18 2.0 Hot Rods, 13 National Hot Rods, 16 Lightning Rods)
Overkill?

Adam McFall took a heat and final in the Ninja Karts
Thanks Mark





Wrong way Darren

Scottish Visitor Ian Taylor
Lightning Rod Final Pile Up
Tim Hazlett's NHR debut.

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