Lisburn racer Haire has a lucky escape
LOCAL
duo Davy Haire and Gareth Evans, were in action in Scotland over the bank
holiday weekend. The pair were among a small handful of Irish riders who
took the ferry across the Irish Sea to partake in the Ulster Championship
round being held at Knockhill in Fife.
Lisburn teenager Haire, almost wrecked his entire weekend when he had a massive crash during a test session on Friday morning, but thankfully with the help of his team and his friends in the Moto Tech team, Hillsborough rider Gareth Evans and his mechanic Brian Jones they were able to get the Honda repaired in time for the racing on Saturday morning.
"On Friday during practise I went out just to get a run round on the bike before going straight into qualifying Saturday morning," said Haire. "It was not what 1 expected. I came off going into the first turn losing the back end on the entrance. I was very lucky not to be injured, but the bike was in a seriously bad way, the only thing ok was the main frame and engine, it was the biggest crash of my career to date."
Haire who is closing down on the Championship title, was
delighted when he took fourth place overall in the opening race on Saturday,
which was enough to give him first place in the Ulster Championship race. He
then went on to register a DNF in the second race of the day which was held
in wet conditions. He was more than happy at the way the weekend panned out
for him, Haire said afterwards: "I got the 50 points I needed and came away
safe and sound after such a huge crash on Friday." Saturday also proved to
be a good day for Evans when he hauled in the points finished third in the
Ulster Championship Supersport 600 opening race and 15th place overall in
the Scottish Championship. He then went out in the second race and took
second place in the Ulster Championship and improving to fifth overall in
the Scottish Championship
After the race Evans said: "The first race went well, there was a red flag incident on the fifth lap which was the bike in front of me low-siding into Turn One, it was a big crash and we spent about 15mins sitting in pit lane. The officials wouldn't let us use tyre-warmers, so on the re-start I had no feeling from the front end so found it hard to keep up with the guys in front. After a couple of laps I was able to push on, drop my lap times and catch the guys in front. I made a couple of good passes and ended up 3rd in the Ulster standings."
Sunday came around and it was to be another day of good racing for the duo with Haire again in action on the Superbike taking both the overall race victory and Ulster race victory over veteran Ulster rider Newtownards man Kirk Jamison, much to the delight of teenager Haire.
Evans to had two more good races taking two more second places in the Ulster Championship and 14th overall in both races. Finishing behind Mark Hanna in race one and Alistair Kirk in race two. "Race two Sunday morning was very cold, that along with slightly patchy conditions from the rain on Saturday night, and also using the same tyres from Saturday meant that the lap times dropped off slightly but, this was the case for the rest of the riders as well. But, I came through the pack and was second Ulster finisher." said Evans. "This weekend was my first time racing at the track so I was thrown in at the deep end. So all in all a difficult and challenging weekend end, but an awful lot of fun and brought home a good few points."
Ulster Star
04/09/2009
