After the stresses and strains of the TT it was back to the more relaxing environment of Irelands roads at the weekend for Davy Morgan Racing and the Bush Road Races. It was an early start on Friday to get set-up in the paddock and get the bikes sorted, scrutineered and ready for practice.

It was the 250cc practice session first and Davy set off on the BLRC/Strangford Holiday Park Honda in confident mood and the hope of a good run to start the weekend. Everything was going to plan and as Davy headed on to his third lap he was second in the standings, but then a shower of rain brought things to an abrupt end and the session was red-flagged. It was announced by the organisers that the session would be run again at the end of the evening.

Fortunately it was the last rain of the evening and with the heat in both the air and ground the track dried very quickly. Next up for Davy was the Supersport Session and it was the CSC Branson R6 Yamaha that headed off from the holding area. After a couple of steady laps to get dialled in, Davy set the fourth quickest time of the session on his third circuit and that was to be his finishing position as he came in to some traffic and was not able to go any faster.

After a break as the other classes had their qualifying, it was the CSC Branson R1 Yamaha next up and again it was to be a solid, confidence building session even though a few handling issues need to be sorted. On his fourth lap he managed to wrestle the bike round the 3.3 mile track to the fourth quickest time in the class and another second row start.

The second 250cc session was short one, as a puncture on the opening lap saw no time recorded and a disappointing fourth row start was the reward taken from his lap time in the first session. All in all it was a positive night’s work and with a dry race day the promise of some good results.

pic : Baylon McCaughey

Weather conditions put paid to race day for Davy Morgan Racing as the intermittent showers meant wet, then dry, then wet roads again and only one sighting lap all day. The bikes and Davy were ready to go, but the rain seemed to come every time Davy was about to leave the holding area and with dry tyres, a very slippery surface including some new tarmac and Davy’s lack of confidence in the wet round Bush it was a case of head over heart.

A frustrated Davy speaking afterwards, “I feel really bad, I feel that I have let those who support me down, but after what happened two years ago I have just no confidence in the surface here in the wet, if it had been any other circuit I would have been out there. I quite like the circuit in the dry, which my practice times showed, but in the wet there is just not enough grip. It’s was a really frustrating situation as the rain seemed to come every time I went to leave the holding area and then it dried again during the race. I really think that I could have picked up a couple of podiums after Friday night”.