23rd August Race Abandoned:

Apologies to all of those Clubman racers who where disappointed with the decision to cut short the days racing at Bishopscourt on Saturday.

I can assure all of you that this was the best decision that could have been taken based on the information and circumstances that prevailed. Standing water can be extremly dangerous even with the use of full wet tyres. There comes a stage when even full wet tyres will lose grip or aquaplane at high speed. Even though we would expect all riders to compete with due care for themselves and others, a racing situation can indeed provoke the most unatural reactions. Quite safe in dry and in normal wet conditions but in the conditions that we experienced on Saturday the risk was much greater than normal.

The officials on the day made every effort to ensure that racing continued. However, on the grounds of information that was available from officials, marshals staff, circuit staff, riders, and with a firm focus of the overall safety and well being of everyone who was in attendance at the event, the Clerk of Course decided that the only action open was to abandon racing.

We must remember that there are many many factors to consider when making a decision to continue or abandon racing. Safety will always be foremost in that decision. Please consider that we had the benefit of very experienced national riders to draw on and these riders did have an input to the decision. We also had the benefit of experience from many officials and other staff and these persons also had an input to the decision. As hindsite would have it, the weather did improve about 40mins later. But how could we have know that?

Unfortunately that was the last opportunity for the MCRRCI to give you all a good days racing in 2008. Let's hope that the weather if kinder to us in 2009 and we can all enjoy some fun in the sun at Bishopscourt.



MCRRCI Today:

The MCRRCI today is made up from some 180 members. The majority of these members are racers who have joined the Club to enter motor cycle racing events throughout Ireland and in some cases beyond.
The business of the Club is conducted at our monthly meetings which are held on the last Tuesday of the month at Harland and Wolf Staff Club premises. The Harland & Wolff Staff Club is in Dundella Avenue off the Hollywood Road in Belfast.
Proceedings start at approx 8.30pm and the business usually takes no more than 2 hours to get through. This is where all of the race preparation and promotion is discused (and sometimes argued) until we finally roll out on race day.

The Club is lead by a team of enthusiastic volunteers who spend many many hours working to provide the short circuit racing fraterity premier race events. This team is currently as follows:

Mr Charlie Watts - President
Mr Carson Bell - Chairman
Mrs Deborah Irwin - Secretary
Mr Ivan Davidsion - Race Secretary and Press Officer
Mr Don Shields - Treasurer
Mr David Patterson - Chief Marshall
Mr Mark Sanlon - Clerk Of Course
Mr Jimmy McGuiggan - Chief Paddock Marshall
Mr Tony Harvey - Incident Officer
Mr Ken Stewart - Sponsors Liaison
Mr Gary Coburn - Grid Co-ordinator

The MCRRCI promote racing at Bishopscourt with the most grateful assistance from our friends in the Killinchy & District Motor Cycle Club. The Killinchy & District provide valuable manpower assistance for the race day, and without them we would not be able to run. So the events are always a joint venture between our two Clubs.

With added sponsorship most gratefully provided from;
Strong Construction (NI) and the Enkalon Motorcycle Club,
our programme for 2008 has been extended from two races to three races at Bishopscourt. The additional date being the Clubmans race event on the 19th April. See our "MCRRCI - Race Dates For 2008" page for more details on the dates.

Picture Below - The Team at MCRRCI