The Cherry Pipes 2.0 Hot Rods European Championship was another event to attract a huge field, with the keenly contested heat wins falling to Portadown’s Adam Heatrick, Scottish star Keith Brown and Bleary’s Drew McKeown.
A shower of rain just before the off in Sunday’s European Championship race just added to the drama, with McKeown the first to show ahead of Conor Hughes. Hughes finally found a way past with a great outside line pass, and he stretched ahead out front. Late in the race McKeown came back with a late surge, getting back on terms and finding a way down the inside of Hughes for the lead. Conor came back and bundled his way past again to take the flag, but after a Stewards Enquiry he was demoted two places for the late contact on McKeown. That gave Drew his first major championship win and at just nineteen years old the youngest ever European Champion, with World Champion Jordan Rochford in second ahead of the demoted Hughes.

The Ninja Karts impressed all weekend with almost 30 young stars in action from right across the UK. Jack Jones won both heats on Saturday in some style, but it was Belfast’s Caolan Fegan who took the DMC Gold Cup Final after on the road winner Mason Carberry was demoted for jumping a restart. Stuart Shevill took the runner up spot ahead of the relegated Carberry.
Sunday saw the prestigious Keir Millar Memorial Trophy up for grabs, with the heat wins falling to the English duo of Carberry and Clark Ferris. The final turned out to be an absolutely fantastic encounter, with Scottish star Shevill taking the win by the narrowest of margins ahead of Ferris and National & English Champion Charlie Weston.

The Junior Productions completed the line up, with the heats shared between Lexi Crooks and Brandon Litter. But it was Dungannon’s Jake Devlin who powered through to land the final honours for his first ever victory in the sport, and no better time to do it than in front of the huge Speedweekend crowd!

Some of the best racing of the day was from another big field of Superstox, with a career first win for Gerard Hartley kicking off the day in heat one. He led home Jamie McCann and Curtis Greer. Heat two was a fantastic race, with Hartley again the pacesetter until the star men moved ahead. A four way dice between Ed Davis, Greer, McCann and Craig McConnell over the last couple of laps was only decided on the last bend as McCann took a super win over McConnell.
The annual Moffett Shield final saw Ross O’Shea leading for some distance before losing out to Davis. A couple of late race cautions only added to the drama, with McCann again pouncing on the last lap to grab the coveted shield ahead of Davis and Jordan Robinson. Neil Hyndman was fourth over the line and he also took the best white/yellow grade award.

Scotland’s Craig Haxton joined the locals in the 1300 Stock Cars, with the big bumpers put to good use as always. A quiet by the usual standards opening heat fell to Gareth Halliday over Chris Hamill, before Robbie Wright went in hard with the bumper on the final bend to take the heat two spoils ahead of Fionn Donnelly and Jonny Patterson.
The final saw Donnelly ahead, with Irish Champion Hamill and Ty Richardson coming into the mix over the last few laps. Hamill went ahead, only for the other pair to come back at him in style, but Chris isn’t an Irish Champion for nothing and he duly brushed aside their challenge to take a fine win. Richardson, Donnelly and Patterson filled the places.

There was a BMW one-two in the opening Lightning Rods heat as Dean Catherwood headed home Nigel Jackson, before World and National Champion Ricky Shaw showed his class to win the second heat over Catherwood and Gerry Rogers.
The final saw Catherwood stretching clear out front before he sadly went out with mechanical issues, which handed the lead to Martin O’Flaherty. He held off the advances of the pack over the last few laps to take a deserved win over Jackson and Shaw.

English visitor Jenson Fish joined the regulars in the Ninja Karts, with Riley Dawson-Stirling taking the opening heat win after the leaders all tripped over each other late on. Noah Teggart and Caolan Fegan chased him home. Sean Conway’s best showing so far looked set to see him take the second heat win, but he got badly baulked by a recovering backmarker on the very last bend, which allowed Dawson-Stirling through to take another win over Keegan Turtle and Fish.
Jack Morrison went ahead early in the final, but Dawson-Stirling again managed to make his way ahead to complete a perfect hat-trick for the evening by lifting the Golden Helmet trophy. Morrison was great value in second after an excellent meeting for him, with Fegan, Teggart and Charlie Johnston the next drivers home.

Simon McLaughlin took the win in the opening Thunder Rods heat after relegating early leader Tom Archibald. Jason Darragh and David Wilson took second and third after a few penalties were handed out. Heat two saw a first ever career win for Archibald, as he led from start to finish to win ahead of McLaughlin and Rick Purdy. This race was marred by a huge back straight crash which eliminated a number of cars.
Some sterling pit work saw some very badly damaged cars from the big crash back in action for the final, which was a credit to all the teams. McLaughlin again worked his way ahead in this one, and despite huge late pressure from Darragh and Purdy he managed to hold on to complete an impressive double.

Another excellent field of Junior Productions saw novice grader Brandon Litter take his first ever win in the opening heat ahead of British Champion Jack Morrow and Jake Devlin. Brandon did it all again in heat two, taking his second career victory ahead of Lexi Crooks and Dylan Fegan.
An early skirmish in the final took out a few fancied runners, and soon Crooks had got her nose ahead in her pretty Vauxhall Corsa. Stewart Hanna was tracking her every move until the two clashed and went out, handing the lead to Morrow who raced home to take the win in some style ahead of Matthew Weir, Daniel Stewart and Leyton Hughes.