| 29/06/2008 | Irish 750cc support championship Round 4 | Athea |
| for athea, we flew to shannon airport & drove in a hire car to the west of ireland, arriving at athea just in time for a few pints of the 'black stuff', before billy turned up in the transporter from his long drive from lisburn. i had a couple of 'laps' in the car of the circuit but to be honest that was all i wanted as the track is not very technical, mainly long straights and road ends, the back straight being probably a mile long and 10ft wide! i was pretty glad we did'nt have to go on a newcomers bus here (or apparuntly at any track in the south) as i'd have probably fell asleep. qualifying went ok, managing 7th for a start in the 1st wave, however i was actually hoping for a 2nd wave start ideally for some clear track! race 1 was probablly the worst i'd riden so far all year, basically holding my position as i could'nt seem to get 'excited' by the track and i finished in 6th place. for race 2, fired up by my lack of effort in race 1, i had a far better race moving upto 2nd place by lap 3 which i held till lap 7 when i caught a backmarker in the only place on the whole circuit entering the village, i got held up big time on the outside at the left hander and blocked at the right and dropped 2 places, losing another on the run to the line, finishing a dissapointing 5th. team mate mike russell made the most of his 2nd wave start getting his first win of the year. qualifying - 7th race 1 - 6th race 2 - 5th | ||