A Tale of Two Dereks at Faugheen
The racing at the Faugheen 50 Road Races, round 16 of the Duke Road Race Rankings Championship 2016, saw a battle of the Derek’s, with Derek McGee continuing his great 600 form, and despite blowing up his race engine in practice, his team worked through the night to replace the engine, and he repaid their hard work with a 4 second win over Derek Sheils and Micko Sweeney.
Sheils took the Open Championship Superbike race after a thrilling dice with McGee, and he had just 0.449 of a second to spare over the “Mullingar Missile” McGee at the flag.
Micko Sweeney was unfortunate to crash out while leading the 650 Supertwin race at Walderstown, but he made up for this in a classic encounter with Derek Sheils and Paul Jordan. Sheils took the lead and was still in front after three laps, but the Skerries rider took an amazing three seconds out of Sheils on the next lap setting the fastest lap of the race at 97.133, just outside the current lap record, and Sheils had no match for the Skerries rider finishing 1.214 seconds ahead of Sheils, with Paul Jordan just behind in third.
The Grand Final was road racing at its best, with Sheils and McGee once more to the fore. McGee led from the start, and despite breaking the course record in two successive laps, Sheils had to settle for second place behind McGee who gave the NW Racing team their first success of the year on the BMW.
Rounds 15 at Oliver's Mount, Scarborough and round 16 at Carrick-on-Suir, Co Tipperary, were held on the same weekend, 23rd & 24th July, with a separate Rankings table compiled after the Barry Sheene Road Races and now further updated after the Faugheen 50 Road Races.
There are no changes in the top six, whilst 'Man of the Meeting' at Faugheen, Derek Sheils moves up two places to seventh.
Grand Final winner Derek McGee also climbs up the table - five places from 19th to 14th spot. Highest climber up 11 places from 44th to 33rd is 2014 Duke Newcomers Award winner, Neil Kernohan.
Round 17, takes place this coming weekend Friday and Saturday 29th & 30th July, at Armoy for the 'Race of Legends' Road Races.
Full details of the Duke Road Race Rankings can be found on Facebook: www.facebook.com/DukeRoadRaceRankings
