It was another frustrating weekend for Davy Morgan Racing as road racing returned north for the Mid-Antrim 150 Road Races at Clough, County Antrim. Unfortunately the rain followed and it was another weekend that created track conditions that were not favourable and in an unforgiving sport in the teams opinion un-rideable.

Friday’s practice was declared un-timed by the organisers due to the constant rain and so all the riders just needed to complete five laps to qualify for Saturdays Races. Davy was out with the newcomers as an MCUI Instructor and completed his five laps in this session. It was so cold that he could not remove his own gloves when he came in as his fingers were numb. The CSC Branson R6 Yamaha had to be washed as it looked like it had been in a motocross race due to the amount of dirt on the circuit. So it was decided that nothing more would be achieved by going out again so that was the evening over.

Saturday morning and guess what, it rained, however by start time the rain had stopped and the circuit had began to dry. Davy did three laps leading round the parade riders before the first race and decided it was too dry for full wets, but slicks would not be suitable so it was a quick change of tyres and then wheels to put in a rear intermediate. However this did not solve the problem and in the drying, but very greasy conditions the CSC Branson R1 was spinning and sliding everywhere and after the two sighting laps Davy pulled in along with about six other riders.

With another light shower of rain as the Strangford Holiday Park/BLRC Honda sat in the holding area, made the track conditions similar for the 250cc Junior Race so the decision was made to give it a miss for safety reasons. As the day went on the rained stayed away, but due to the cold wind the track temperature was low and so was drying very slowly.

Wanting at least one run there was another quick change of wheels as Davy headed out on the CSC Branson R6 Yamaha, the conditions were still not ideal, but with the R6 having less power Davy came to the line to give it a go. It was to be short lived as two major incidents that almost had Davy off on the opening lap brought it to an abrupt end. Firstly as the pack headed out of Clough Village on the run to Alexanders Jump the chain came off the bike in front and got caught under Davy’s front wheel and almost brought him off, then as they headed in round by the farmhouse a rider came off in front of him and as both bike and rider came off the bank in to the road Davy had to put on the brakes and stop to avoid hitting them. Not the best circumstances when you already have no confidence in the track and so that was to be the end of the day.

Speaking on Saturday evening a down in the mouth Davy commented: “Enthusiasm is waning rapidly, the rain is doing my head in, and it now seems to be every weekend. I love riding bikes, but the condition of the track this weekend were as bad as I have ridden on in a long time and I was just not willing to take the risk. There was actually more grip in the rain on Friday than the drying ones on Saturday that made it very greasy. The one racing lap I got was eventful enough as I was nearly off twice and that finished me off and decided to wait for another day”.

“Once again I want to say a big thank you to all those who helped me over the weekend and my sponsors for their support, believe me I am as frustrated as you must be at the moment, surely we are due a dry weekend”.