Offroad club league returns
After a brief mid season holiday period, the Dromara CC mtb league returned on tuesday night, with round 10 organised by Paul Hamilton and Tollymore was chosen as the venue. With August being well into race season, a tough course was marked out comprising of 2 challenging climbs into technical singletrack descents to test the form of all riders.
Barry Kellett kicked things off with a hard first lap taking fastest lap of the night to put pressure on the group chasing. Non other than the infamous “DCC train” with usual suspects Adrian Booth, Brian Kellet and Brian Wilson in the mix. This group fought hard for position but it was Wilson who pulled a considerable gap to leave Booth and Kellett to fight the battle behind. Closing in mid race were Ben Wilson and David Broome with Broome holding the lead on Ben until the last lap. Chasing up the field finally would be Wannita Broome, Karter Broome and Cameron McCusker each with a mission to catch the early pack in 2 laps with a time penalty start.
Wannita fought hard despite her excuse of pre-race tiredness to finish 6th ahead of Adrian Booth, Brian & Barry Kellett leaving the podium stars of the night to be Cameron taking first place just ahead of Karter in 2nd which is testament to how these 2 young riders have steadily improved over the season so far. In a sprint finish battle for 3rd place it was Ben who just pipped his dad across the line leaving Brian with a hard fought 4th. Another photo-finish sprint for 7th place would see Adrian Booth leave Brian Kellett with 8th place. The rain arrived on the last lap as the finishers made their way back to the Tollymore Centre for bike wash and podium presentation. Onwards to the next round will be Enduro held by Paul McLean which no doubt will have club riders keen to test themselves towards the approaching First Tracks series in Castlewellan.
