Back with a bang
OUR LOCAL racers were back in action at the newly-named Dunlop Masters in Mondello Park race track recently, and what a weekend it turned out to be.
Kevin Dempsey, after over one year off from racing, took three wins in this inaugural weekend on his new bike, a Suzuki sv650 production twin, and he looks good for the championship as a whole.
Graham Kennedy, a road racer, took to the tarmac once again but this time as a passenger in a sidecar outfit driven by Terry O’Reilly, clinching a first, second and third place.
This is a new sport to Graham but he took to it with ease, albeit picking up a few bruised ribs from leaning out of the sidecar.
Sidecar team Mark Codd and Liam Gordon also did really well in their season opener on their new painted and class-looking machine with a first place in what was said to be the race of the day.
A final corner tussle and a drag race to the finish line saw them coming out on top, and they also had two third place finishes. The sidecar class will be one to watch this year as 20 outfits registered to race.
Graham Whitmore had a good weekend also with a fifth and sixth place in a very competitive class, but he had a bit of bad luck in the last race when he ran out of fuel, leading to a D.N.F.
His brother, Thomas Whitmore, was also out at Mondello in preparation for the start of his road racing season, working out the cobwebs from the winter lay-off from racing. Thomas picked up two sixths and a fifth place.