Big Wins For Martin and McNiece at Aghadowey

The annual pre-NW200 oval racing meeting at Aghadowey Oval took place on Friday night May 12th, with some great racing across all four formulas on show. Dungannon’s Derek Martin scooped the National Hot Rods final, with Enniskillen’s Stevie McNiece successfully defending his King of Aghadowey title in the Stock Rods. Kilrea’s Zack McCombe was the winner in the exciting Thunder Rods, whilst there was a first ever final win in the Junior Productions for Portadown’s Brandon Litter.

Local Aghadowey racer Richard Stewart was the star man in the National Hot Rod heats, taking the opener in style ahead of Philip McCloy and Gary Woolsey. Heat two saw Richard again take the chequered flag, this time ahead of Andrew Stewart with Nigel McCauley getting the best of a great scrap for third.
Richard Stewart again led the final early on, the twelfth round of Simpson Race Exhausts World Series NI. He wasn’t getting everything his own way this time though, as McCloy, Thomas Dilly, Derek Martin and Shane Murray joined in for a great 5-car dice for the lead. Stewart thwarted the efforts of McCloy and Dilly, but it was Martin who swooped around the outside to take the win ahead of Murray, Dilly, Stewart and McCloy.

Defending King of Aghadowey Stevie McNiece got his night off to the best possible start by taking the heat one win over Dan Shannon and Victor McAfee, before controversy and drama clouded heat two. Samuel Wilson was spun out early on with Mark Crawford collecting his stricken car. Mark Foster raced home to the win, but after video evidence was viewed he was deemed the cause of Wilson’s spin and was disqualified. That handed the win to Kells driver Adam Sloan over Sam McNeice and Stevie McNiece.
Stevie McNiece led Irish Champion Shannon and Sam McNeice early in the final, before a huge engine blow up and fire on Sloan’s car brought proceedings to a halt. At the resumption there was no stopping Stevie on his march to the title, as he duly took the win over Sam McNeice who managed to slip past Shannon late on for second.
Another excellent entry of teenage Junior Productions stars saw a first ever win in the opening heat for Lacy Bevan, who raced home ahead of Ryan Berry and Daniel Stewart after a great race. Heat two saw Stewart take the win this time with a commanding drive. Harry Minish and Berry finished second and third on the road, but were demoted for incidents during the race. That elevated Matthew Weir and Joshua Murray to the podium places.
Brandon Litter was first to show in the final, but he had Robbie Dallas chasing him down. Just as Robbie was about to mount a challenge for the lead he was unfortunately baulked by a backmarker, with the breathing space allowing Litter to calmly bring it home for his first ever feature race win after a great drive. Dallas, Minish and Berry filled the top places at the end of a fine night of action from the stars of the future.

Once again the Thunder Rods entry topped 20 cars, with Clifford Gordon taking a flag to flag win in the first heat over Zack McCombe and Tom Archibald. Heat two saw Graham Young ahead until the half way mark, before McCombe took over to win despite the close attentions of Andrew McLean.
The final was marred by a huge early crash which eliminated a number of the front runners and left Gordon, McLean and Josh Goligher amongst others with heavy damage. On the restart McCombe quickly hit the front, and he was never headed as he completed his double for the night to earn and upgrade for the next meeting. Curtis Greer, Daniel Rodgers, Adam Graham and Young were the next drivers home.

Added 14/05/23