2012 Round  7– Irish National BMX Race Series

 

National  Seven was back at the Ratoath BMX track on September 16th 2012.

 

 

 

 

The 2012 Irish National BMX Series is now done and dusted and our No.1 riders have been crowned. The 2012 Series has seen 230 brave competitors get their snap on over seven rounds of both indoor and outdoor action. It has to be said that this is a seriously good turnout for a first full season given that there is only some 550 Meters of BMX track on the entire island, that’s a world leading number!

 

Thanks has to go to both Cherry Orchard BMX and Ratoath BMX Club for hosting the series, 2012 has seen Ratoath grow to become the biggest cycling club of any kind on the Island by a factor of two as well as becoming the biggest BMX Club in Europe. Not bad for year one!

 

Round Seven like all the other Nationals before it was a great event, the rain stopped just in time and stayed away all day, well most of it! PJ let rip with the commentating and a tiny bike, Leso better watch out or his job will be gone. DJ Keith had the tunes banging all day while avoiding electrocution. MBW arrived with a mini-van full of new riders, the Callaghan’s put on a great half time trials show, we even had a climbing wall on the go and to top it all off the Clancy boys took the bubble wrap off their 80’s Burner collection and put them on display!

 

And if all that wasn’t enough only a few classy riders had it locked up prior to the final round so we had lots to race for too! Abbey Steacy is one of those classy few, dominating the U10’s girls group, the only rider to win every round.

 

Corey Waller who on a pound for pound basis as the boxers might say is without doubt the best bike rider in the country, National no.1 and a podium at the Derby UK National are both seriously impressive results, with some hard battles along the way with Charlie “rip yer teeth out” Jackson and Cal Gilmer in the boys 5-7.

 

The 8 year old saw another close battle all year long with Lee “Questions” O’Sullivan almost beating fast Mathew Fitzgibbon for top spot.

 

The 9 year olds saw Morgan “The Machine” Kearney pipped for top spot by Cian O’Sullivan.

 

The 10 year olds saw Ross Callaghan and Daniel Barker in one of the closest battles all year long, both great riders and hard to separate.

 

The 11’s saw the silent assassin Sean McKeon dominate once he found his way to the track after missing the first two rounds, with some good battles with an obvious Wyer apprentice Brian “Elbows OG” Kavanagh.

 

The 12’s saw Adam “the real deal” Davis lock it up with a round to go, Adam decided to ride up for the final round demonstrating he has class as well as ability.

 

The 13’s are the age group to watch, all future legends and seriously entertaining BMX racers, with Eoin Corrigan, Mathew Malone, David Dorney, Sam Murphy and Andrew Gerrard all worthy of a “Mention in Dispatches”.

 

The 14’s and 15’s were frequently mixed due to low numbers, Aaron Edwards got the 14’s and John Ward took the 15’s with a round to spare. The 15’s often demonstrating some proper close BMX racing along the way.

 

KT O’Neill won both the girls and ladies titles and beat most of the boys as well, definitely a star of Irish BMX and maybe a future Olympic BMXer. She should race the boys all next year.

 

The 16+ Novice was taken by Killian of the famous Callaghan family, from Eugene “Team” Jackson and Paul Moore.
 

 

The 16+ Experts (the title can be a little misinformative given the average age and skill level) went to the old pro Eamonn Wyer demonstrating it takes a lot more than a fast pair of legs and youth to earn number 1. Eamonn finally getting a title after 29 years of trying.  Alex Holiday took the number 2 plate narrowly ahead of Jonathan “Kylo” Kyle in third. Riders to keep an eye on next year include Gavin Carroll if he can figure out the gate and Kevin McShane if he can figure out how to stay on the bike!

 

 The final 2012 standings can be seen HERE.

 

Plans are being hatched for the 2013 season, hopefully more rounds on more tracks, stay tuned!

 

 

 

 
 16+ Expert Final.

 

 

A Special thanks goes to the people who give up their time to document all these Nationals with amazing photos. A couple of the obvious include Stephen Kane & Rafal Napierala.

Some of the images from this round can be seen in the links below (if you have more to add let us know).
Rafal Napierala Part 1 (facebook)

Rafal Napierala Part 2 (facebook)

Rafal Napierala Part 3 (facebook)

Rafal Napierala Part 4 (facebook)

Rafal Napierala Prize Giving (facebook)

Eugene Jackson (facebook)

Derek Waller (facebook)

Patrick Maher (facebook)

 

 

 

Results from Round Seven: 

 

 

We are still not done for 2012 by a long way though, get ready for the  2012 Irish National Championships brought to you by bmxpursuits on 3rd and 4th November in Cherry Orchard, see HERE for details.