The first of two scheduled visits to the Brands Hatch GP circuit this season proved to be an
extremely successful one for Team #109, with 2018 Dickies Junior Supersport champion
Eunan McGlinchey scoring his first Pirelli National Superstock 600 victory onboard the
Kawasaki ZX-6R 636, and Graeme Irwin narrowly missing out on a point scoring finish on
his very first visit to the historic Kent circuit.
The weekend got off to a somewhat shaky start for McGlinchey and the Cork based team.
Struggling for set up throughout the opening two free practice sessions, McGlinchey’s best
finish on Friday was a seventeenth. Into Saturday and more work was done by the team
and the Aghadowey rider, but unfortunately despite their efforts the best they could
manage was a fifth row start for Sundays race, with McGlinchey finishing the session in
fourteenth position following a small crash at Druids around the midway point.
As they arrived at the track on Sunday morning conditions were far from ideal, and a rain
shower just before Superstock 600 warm up meant a further change of settings for the
team. Despite their tough luck, a wet race played into their favour, with McGlinchey’s skill
in the difficult conditions, and a solid wet set up, it wasn’t long before he was making his
way through the field. By the mid way point the twenty-one year old had made his way
from fourteenth on the grid to the lead of the race. As the laps progressed, McGlinchey
and McGreevy were locked in a great battle for the victory. Despite the best efforts of
McGreevy on the Triumph, McGlinchey held on to take a fantastic victory in what were
horrible conditions, and put all the bad luck firmly behind him.
The victory was not only the first of McGlinchey’s career in the Superstock 600 class, but it
was also Team #109’s first victory in the class. The twenty-five points collected saw the
Aghadowey rider leap into second position in the championship standings, seven points off
current series leader, Aaron Clifford.
Carrickfergus rider Graeme Irwin had another solid weekend onboard the Team #109
Kawasaki ZX-10RR, constantly improving throughout the course of the three days. Free
practice one say the former British motocross champion finish in twenty-third, before
taking an incredible two seconds off his time later that afternoon, finishing free practice
two in fourteenth.
Following qualifying Irwin lined up in twenty-fourth position on the grid for the first of the
two part split race. As the race progressed Irwin managed to make his way through the
field, crossing the line to take nineteenth position. After refueling in pit-lane and a quick
restart, Irwin soon set back into progressing even further through the pack. Before long
he was once again in line for a points scoring finish, closing in on the top fifteen. However,
an accident at Druids saw Irwin crash out, bringing his race to a premature end.
Sunday saw a huge rain shower in the morning soak the Brands Hatch circuit, and despite
a lack of wet track time, Irwin set about his business in the third race of the weekend.
After a solid performance in what were horrible conditions at the Kent circuit, Irwin
managed to cross the line in a strong eighteenth position onboard the Kawasaki ZX-10RR.
Putting the crash from the race the day before behind him, and closing out the weekend in
strong fashion.
Speaking about the eventful weekend team manager Paul Tobin said; “Eunan arrived at
Brands having never rode the circuit on anything other than his Kawasaki Ninja 400 from
last season, so it was also a learning weekend for him, having to pretty much re-learn the
track on the ZX-6R 636. We struggled a little bit with the set up of the bike throughout
free practice. We had went a certain direction with the bike at Donington Park at the last
round, but this time we went back to a setting we knew worked better for him.
Unfortunately however we weren’t able to run it as we missed morning warm up on
Sunday as it rained just before the session. In what were horrible conditions he rode a
very shrewd race, picking riders off one by one until he had made his way all the way into
the lead. It was Eunan’s first victory in the class, and it was also the teams first victory in
the class also, so we were all absolutely delighted that he managed to wrap that up for us,
and now he sits second in the championship and despite some bad luck at the beginning
of the season, he is right back in the game.”
He continued; “Following on from Graeme’s point scoring result at Donington Park he
moved onto Brands Hatch with a lot of confidence, which was another new track for him.
He only seen it for the first time on Thursday, and with it being a very hard track to learn
he was extremely impressive over the course of the weekend. He just missed out on
points again on Sunday in what were very tricky conditions onboard the Kawasaki ZX-10RR
and I think going into Knockhill his confidence will still be high having been there for a test
a few weeks ago.”
Next for Team #109 is a trip north for the only Scottish round of the season at the famous
Knockhill circuit. The track proved to be a successful stomping ground for the team last
season, with McGlinchey taking a brace of podium finishes in the Dickies Junior Supersport
class. The team will also be back to full strength with Curtis Trimble and James McManus
back in action onboard the Ninja 400 machines.
Team #109 would like to thank all their sponsors for their continued support, Liftrite.ie,
Team Green Kawasaki, Kinsale Hotel & Spa, MMD Construction, EMS Copiers, Ohlins
Racing, CMRVC, Glenn Irwin, Fuchs Silkolene, R&G, JOG Tuning, PP Tuning, Arrow
Exhaust, JTec Sports, SBS Brakes, Gorman Crash Repairs, Jim McCann & Sons Family
Butchers, James McCann Photography, Spears Racing, HEL Performance, Unlimited
Industries, Keohane Ready Mix, and Samco Sport.
Photographs courtesy of James McCann | @jmccannphoto | www.jmccannphoto.com
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