The Ulster Grand Prix – the fastest road race in the world – is now underway. Today will see a qualifying session and then a series of five scheduled races concluding with the Charles Hurst Dundrod 150.
Racing will resume on Saturday 12th August 2017 taking us to the feature race – 2017 MCE Ulster Grand Prix.
The hardest question is 'where should I go to watch it?'
Thankfully the organisers have put together a very helpful list of the a the Vantage Points and how to get to them :
If you are unable to get to Dundrod for this years Ulster Grand Prix make sure you still catch all the action with the event's highlights coverage – on television, online and on the BBC iPlayer.
And if you are here but can't hear the commentary fear not as all Saturday's racing will be covered live by BBC Radio Ulster! (AM / FM / and online streaming).
Full coverage details :
With race Week already underway today is the first day we will see bikes on the road! And the roads close in a little over 2 hours.
So for your info here is the circuit map :
Have a great and safe Ulster Grand Prix to all the riders, teams, spectators, marshals, everyone.
Bikers : #KeepTheRaceInItsPlace
Drivers : #TakeaSecondLook
Read the Tyco BMW Press Release here :
http://tycobmw.com/manxman-kneen-to-join-tyco-bmw-for-the-ulster-grand-prix/
Tyco BMW have announced that Manx rider Dan Kneen will ride for them at the 2017 MCE Ulster Grand Prix.
With Ian Hutchinson out of contention for the Dundrod meeting due to the injuries he sustained at the Isle of Man TT, former MCE Ulster GP winner Kneen is set to be the team’s only rider at the final international road race of the year.
30-year-old Manxman Dan had his most successful TT campaign to date this year, securing both his fastest lap and a debut podium in the Superstock race behind Ian Hutchinson and Peter Hickman.
He comes to Dundrod with an impressive Southern 100 performance under his belt too, narrowly missing out on glory in the senior race to Michael Dunlop, who crossed the finish line just 0.12 seconds in front of Kneen.
Dan Kneen said: “First of all, it’s nice to be asked to ride for Tyco BMW. Obviously, the opportunity has come up, due to Hutchy’s injury, so I’d like to take this opportunity to wish him all the best with his recovery.
Full list of awards and their recipients from the 2017 Armoy Road Racing Event :
The 2017 Armoy Road Races took place on 28th – 29th July 2017. Here are the full race results and timings for each race :
As a quick note Michael Dunlop took the feature race – ‘The Race of Legends’ in outstanding style by over 12 seconds – his seventh in a row at Armoy! As I said, ‘outstanding.’
The 2017 North West 200 was the start of the end for Honda’s Road Racing Season this year.
Things hadn’t got off to a great start anyway even after the announcement of what has to be described as a dream team of John MCGuinness and Guy Martin. Guy crashed out of Tandragee and had a mediocre Cookstown event, however whether Honda wanted to admit it or not there was clearly an issue come the North West.
Every road racing fan knows John McGuinness just doesn’t fall off and it didn’t take long until the rumours started flowing that there was an issue with the bike and something to do with the throttle and that is what had thrown John off the bike.
Now two and a half months later, those rumours have been confirmed.
The internet has went crazy today reporting on Guy Martin retiring from Road Racing. As a Guy Martin fan, that is of course devastating news, and I honestly believe that most pure fans of road racing will also agree that Guy was / is good for the sport and its profile. However following an ‘exclusive interview’ with MCN it looks like his road racing days are over…
With huge publicity surrounding the partnership of John McGuiness and Guy Martin on the new Honda FireBlade things looked perfect for the 2017 season.
Then it all started to unwind. A poor Tandragee 100 started the season with Guy crashing out on his first lap, followed by an uneventful Cookstown 100 and North West 200 (at the same time as losing team mate John McGuinness to a horrific crash) which led us to the Isle of Man. After the ‘box of neutrals’ incident Honda withdrew from the rest of the event. Guy went onto a second place in the TTZero with Team Mugen, his team mate Bruce Anstey taking the win in that event.
Then the press release came that Honda and Guy would not be participating in the Ulster Grand Prix, a circuit that has brought Guy great success as well as proving almost deadly in 2015.
At this point I think most of us thought the writing on the wall was now here.
Guy Martin’s Road Racing days are over.
Explaining his decision to call it a day in an exclusive interview with MCN’s Matt Wildee, Guy said: “Racing’s been good to me, but I’m bored of it. You spend the early part of the year preparing for the season – testing, racing, talking about it, and then doing it all over again. It’s like Groundhog Day. It’s time to stop.”
Or are they?
The Sunday Race Schedule for the 2017 Faugheen 50 is certainly a full one :
And here is how the days events panned out :
Click ‘Read More’ for all the results of every race including the break down by class, but if you can’t wait that long then the top three of the Grand Final (the winner being almost 16 seconds ahead of the second placed rider and over a full 24 seconds ahead of 4th place) were…
No sorry I can’t do it, there are no spoilers here… Read on for the full results and timing breakdowns :
Today’s session consisted of free practice session then a qualifying timed practice session. Keep reading for the results of the time practice sessions.
However in the meantime check this out!
Press Release 2017 : (From https://www.facebook.com/faugheen.rrclub/)