Double delight for Gary Moulds

Gary Moulds, with the help of stand in passenger Niki Adair wrapped up the Ulster sidecarcross championship, to add to his Irish title, at a dusty Tinker Hill on Saturday.
Gary Moludxs with his team and family asfter lifting the Irish and Ulster Sidecarcross ChampionshipsGary Moludxs with his team and family asfter lifting the Irish and Ulster Sidecarcross Championships
Gary Moludxs with his team and family asfter lifting the Irish and Ulster Sidecarcross Championships

The Lisburn driver qualified fastest and won the only race he took part in before flying to the British championship round at Wakes Colne, Essex.

It was more than enough to comfortably win his second title of 2018. It was 22 year-old’s first domestic double of his career.

At the British round the local man teamed up with regular passenger Steve Kirwin and the pair qualified second fastest before finishing third overall after two thirds and a second place behind championship leaders Brett Wilkinson and Dan Chamberland.

“It wasn’t too bad a day” said Moulds. “In race one I put the bike into the wrong gear at the start and we got left at the gate putting us outside the top ten on the opening lap but we got our head down and were into third on lap three before the bike started cutting out and the steering damper broke.

“We made no more progress and just held on to third.

“We were second away in race two but there was no stopping Brett Wilkinson then in our final race we led from the start but the bike kept cutting out and actually stopped completely once at the half way stage of the race.

“Thankfully it restarted and we finished third to give us third overall.”

Moulds now trails Wilkinson by 49 points in the championship with two rounds left, but is 21 clear of Jake Brown in second.

Local crew Neil Campbell and Craig Parmenter had a DNF in race one due to a front tyre puncture, after leading from the gate but their day got better at Wakes Colne after finishing fifth in the next two races.

Emma Moulds, in only her second race since badly breaking her wrist back in Apri,l and Niki Adair finished 13th in race one then another potential 13th was ruined by a puncture and a bike that kept cutting out.

Jonny Wilson and Louise Houston from Dromore Co. Down made their own piece of sidecarcross history on Saturday when they took their first ever Ulster race win at the final round of the championship at Tinker Hill.

It was an ecstatic Louise, the only female passenger in the country, who screamed with delight as her and Jonny took the chequered flag after leading race two from start to finish with their son Jake and passenger Andrew Rowan, who took the overall, a close second.

“It was one of our best races ever and to get that win was special.

“I’m the only female passenger in the country.

“The first ever to win an Ulster race, so I did all right for an old doll.” joked Louise.

Jonny added: “We have won races in England but this was our first Ulster win and it feels good.

“Racing is a family thing for us with our two younger kids racing in the junior quads and our eldest son racing with us in the sidecar class.

“We just live and breathe racing. It’s our life!

“I really enjoyed that race especially with our son finishing second. It was a good day.”

In the quad classes at Tinker Hill it was a day of champions with Meath rider Leon Rogers lifting the Gilchrist Plant Hire Premier Quad Ulster title, the first man from south of the border to take an Ulster quad title.

Stephen Mulholland was odds on to lift the GMG Contracts Clubman’s Quad title but a run of bad luck in his opening two races blew his chances and left Pat Wheland, to snatch the title from Mulholland’s grasp with three top three finishes.

The J&L Race Prep/Lloyd Acoustics youth champions are Stuart McMullans, 250 class, Luke Dillon, 110 class and Blake Orr in the 50cc automatic class.