2019 Road Racing Calendar Updated (28th November 2018)

A load of the Northern Irish and most of the Isle of Man Road Racing Schedules have now been confirmed and added to the TBNI 2019 Road Racing Calendar.

Take yourself over to the Calendar Page for the latest dates – or just take the hassle out of everything by subscribing to the TBNI iCal Road Racing Calendar.

The iCal Calendar is :

  • Free
  • Updates automatically on your iCal compatible device
  • Is subscribed to with one click
  • Needs no access to any of your personal information (all you are doing is subscribing to a feed – so your device never gives out info – ever).
  • Has all the details to make sure you never miss another meeting

Full details as of the 28th November 2018 are available here : https://tbni.blog/road-racing-calendar/

BMW at Motorcycle Live 2018
BMW at Motorcycle Live 2018

Iron Butt Association Ireland : 2018 Photo Rally : A Bridge Too Far

Iron Butt Association:

Have you ever thought that you fancy trying something other than the usual Sunday run out on the bike, along the same route, with your head down and bum up?

If so have you ever considered long distance motorcycling?

That is what the Iron Butt Association is all about.  Safe, enjoyable long distance motorcycle riding that gets you out and about to places you probably haven’t seen before, or take routes or challenges that you probably had never even thought of before.

“The 60,000+ members of the Iron Butt Association are dedicated to safe, long-distance motorcycle riding. Although based in the United States, we have thousands of enthusiastic members throughout the globe! One of our more popular slogans is, “The World Is Our Playground.”

Check out out the IBA Website here : http://ironbutt.com

Check out the IBA Ireland Website here : https://www.ibaireland.org

Check out the IBA UK Website here : https://www.ironbutt.co.uk

IBA Ireland : 2018 Photo Rally : A Bridge Too Far IBA Ireland : 2018 Photo Rally : A Bridge Too Far

A Bridge Too Far :

Having been a member of the Iron Butt Association for a few years now I thought I would give their 2018 Photo Rally a go.

The info on their site sums it up pretty well :

Iron Butt Association Ireland Photo Rally 2018
Iron Butt Association Ireland Photo Rally 2018

The locations are spread all over the island of Ireland and the route between them amounts to many thousands of miles.

I’m sure you could plan a route and tackle every location across a few days (reducing the mileage), but personally I used my free time over the summer months and probably took about 5 or 6 individual day trips to gather up all the checkpoints.

Some of those days trips were very long.  For example my final trip took in the far west and south west of Ireland  coming from Northern Ireland that specific trip, which took in 4 bridges started at 7.00am and finished at 1.30am and consumed about 780 miles.

But long mileage is all part of the Iron Butt Challenge, so if you enjoy full days in the saddle, seeing parts of the country (world even) that you probably didn’t even know about Photo Rallies are a good way to go about it and there are plenty of them about.  Most motorcycle clubs, and the bigger Internet forums all offer Photo Rallies, so now that winter is here have a good look about and see what may take your fancy for the next year.

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2018 Mrs Brown’s Boys East Coast Racing Festival Results : Sunday 9th September 2018

2018 Mrs Brown’s Boys East Coast Racing Festival Results :

Derek McGee at the 2018 Mrs Brown’s Boys East Coast Racing Festival
Derek McGee at the 2018 Mrs Brown’s Boys East Coast Racing Festival

Sunday 9th August 2018 – the final race day for the Irish National Road Racing Calendar and it took us to Killalane for the 2018 East Coast Racing Festival sponsored by – strangely enough – Mrs Brown’s Boys.  Fair play though Brown’s seemed to get right into the spirit of things coming up with a funky wee logo and and even more funky bus…

It also say the return to the roads of Derek McGee who just one month ago was knocked out of action at the Ulster Grand Prix at Dundrod…

If we remove that slight hiccup from the equation the result is Derek McGee taking 15 wins from 15 races – a phenomenal achievement and one well worthy of a round of applause – !applause!

It didn’t come easy though as throughout the final Derek Shiels was snapping at his heels on the Cookstown Burrows Engineering bike taking second place by a mere 0.185s!  The third place podium went to Michael Sweeney, Paul Jordan taking fourth.

2018 Mrs Brown’s Boys East Coast Racing Festival Results
2018 Mrs Brown’s Boys East Coast Racing Festival Results

Read on for the full results from every one of the day’s races…

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2018 Ulster Grand Prix : Results – Saturday 11th August 2018

2018 Ulster Grand Prix
2018 Ulster Grand Prix

It’s the final day of the Northern Irish Road Racing Calendar, and it’s one of the biggest – The 2018 Ulster Grand Prix Saturday Race Day. 

This article is being written real time during the event, in a new approach for me, it may work it may not.  So I welcome your comments and input either way.  That should explain why things may bounce about a little, but if it works I may use it in the future as a sort of live blog…

The day got off to an absolutely flying start with Peter Hickman showing once again that he is the fastest road racer on the planet and had his eyes firmly fixed on breaking more records – breaching 200 mph at the Flying Kilo speedtrap…

The previous best was held by William Dunlop #6 (RIP) at a still whopping 200.4 mph. 

Read on for the results and a brief summary of the day’s racing.

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2018 Ulster Grand Prix : Results – Thursday 9th August 2018

Ulster Grand Prix
Ulster Grand Prix

The last road race meeting in Northern Ireland for the year is underway at Dundrod in the form of the Ulster Grand Prix and as usual we have all the results from every race right here for you.

Unfortunately during Thursday’s session we lost Derek McGee and Seamus Elliot (who have both suffered suspected broken bones) Derek McGee was flying through the last couple of meetings – at Fuagheen he had recently made it 14 out of 14!

A few more riders suffered spills but most importantly none suffered any serious injuries.David Murphy came off at Dawson’s, Davo Johnston at the hairpin, a red flag halted the action in the first 600 race due to rain and Joey Thompson suffered a high side.

On a much more positive note Conor Cummins took the Supersport race in outstanding style and Adam McLean dedicated his Supertwin win to James Cowton.  Neil Kernohan and Christian Elkin took the honours in the hotly contested lightweight categories.

Full results below : 

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2018 Armoy Road Races – ‘The Race of Legends’ : Results

Armoy takes up back up towards the North Coast of Northern Ireland, and this year marks the 10th anniversary of the ‘Race of Legends.’

Run over two days the Armoy races consists of a Friday Practice Day (with 2 races at the end of the day) and then Saturday Race Day which was scheduled for 11 Races.  

Unfortunately that was not to be.  

The Saturday Racing was abandoned due to truly atrocious weather.

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2018 Faugheen 50 Road Races Results

Faugheen 50 Road Races
Faugheen 50 Road Races

This weekend saw the road racing schedule return to the Republic of Ireland for the Faugheen 50 Road Races.

As you will see from the results below Derek McGee remains the man to beat with 14 wins, from his last 14 entries.  Impressive!  This weekend’s stats are simply 5 entries – 5 wins!

Derek McGee makes it 14 out of 14 and 5 out of 5 at the 2018 Faugheen 50

Read on for the results of the 2018 Faugheen 50 Road Races :

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2018 Walderstown ‘Race of the South’ Results :

The 2018 Walderstown Road Races were held on 14th – 15th July.

The races, thankfully, passed off without major incident and Derek McGee surged to 4 victories including the feature superbike race.

Read on for the full results of what I believe to have been the first proper wet session of the Irish calendar – I remember Cookstown getting the odd shower but after Ireland being being baked in a recent heatwave it had to break and Walderstown was the first session where wet tyres were the only option – all day!

Derek McGee took four great wins at the 2018 Walstown ‘Race of the South’ Road Races
Derek McGee took four great wins at the 2018 Walstown ‘Race of the South’ Road Races

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William Dunlop : Re-live William Dunlop’s NW200 Superbike win in 2014

Re-live William Dunlop’s thrilling North West 200 Superbike win for the Tyco TAS Racing team in 2014

In memory of William Dunlop the BBC website have brought to the limelight one of his epic battles with his brother Michael during the 2014 North West 200.

It is important to remember the good, especially when things are bad.  Thanks for the memories William.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/northern-ireland/44757191

William Dunlop and Michael Dunlop Duel at the 2014 North West 200
William Dunlop and Michael Dunlop Duel at the 2014 North West 200