Magical Moulds makes history with a stunning performance

NORTH Armagh Motorcycle and Car Club Off-Road member Gary Moulds secured third place in the Maxxis British Elite Sidecarcross Championship, the first Irish rider to do so in the history of the series.

Moulds, riding alongside English passenger Steve Kirwin, also won the Experts Championship on Sunday at Canada Heights, Kent to cap an excellent weekend.

The 22-year-old Lisburn rider added to the accolades as he was the youngest rider to win a Brit- ish Sidecarcross Championship and first to podium in the Elite Championship.

Over three races at the weekend Moulds and Kirwin finished fifth in race one despite a stop, third in race two having had to change an engine between the two races due to a blown head gasket, and third in the final race suffering from front suspension problems, to round out an impressive season that started with a race win during his home round at Desertmartin back on April 1.

Moulds afterwards paid tribute to a host of sponsors, without whom it would have been impossible to perform at the level he did.

Moulds’ sister Emma and her passenger Niki Adair finished 16th overall on Sunday, while Neil Campbell and Craig Parmenter were 10th overall.

At the same event Hillsborough rider Mark McLernon failed in his defence of the British Quadcross Championship, relinquishing his one point lead going into Sunday’s final three races to emotional new champion Paul Holmes.

Young Navan rider Leon Rogers, last year’s Under-21 champion, won leg one, his first victory in the championship, from Holmes with McLernon unfortunately retiring due to a mechanical issue.

Race two was stopped when Newtownards rider Blake McCormick crashed heavily and was transferred to Kings College Hospital, London with concussion and a dislocated shoulder that required surgery to relocate and repair a fracture.

Holmes won the restarted race in which the unfortunate McLernon suffered a crash remounting to finish well down the field, which handed the title to his rival with a race to spare — Holmes also won race three for good measure.

Rogers had a tremendous day with a win and two third places on his way to second overall, his best results of the season.

In the final championship positions McLernon, Rogers and David Cowan finished in second, third and fourth place respectively with Justin Reid, a previous champion, in seventh position.

It has been a good spell lately for local Quadcross, following the Irish team of McLernon, Reid and Michael McAneney creating history with a first ever podium at the Quadcross of Nations at Cingoli in Italy, finishing third overall.