Mondello Park, Co Kildare welcomed birthday boy Josh Elliott for his first outing on home soil this year last weekend. A clash of dates so far this season with the Red Bull Rookies Moto GP rounds, has meant the Fermanagh youngster has not been able to take in any of the Irish championship race meetings.
Friday was his 14th birthday and Josh arrived at Mondello in the hope of simply getting in some valuable track time, which he has been lacking this year to date in comparison to the rest of the rookies he races against in Europe.
Things did not start so well for the Fermanagh lad as he missed a wet first free practice due to a warped brake disc, which had went unnoticed. In very changeable conditions, on a damp but drying track qualifying went fairly well as Elliott managed to get ninth on the grid.
Tyre choice for race one on Saturday afternoon was difficult as rain came and went with very changeable track conditions, but in the end hand cut slicks were chosen as the best compromise. As it turned out the track dried just before the 125 race and those on full slick tyres had the advantage, but that didn't seem to bother the Ballinamallard boy.
Eighth on lap one he made steady progress and managed to get past Glenn Irwin, son of the multi Irish champion Alan Irwin. Thereafter a titanic battle ensued for the rest of the race, with Irwin hounding Elliott right to the flag. Despite minor mistakes from both riders, Elliott managed to put in some good laps and hold on for a superb fourth.
Top established 125 runners of Nigel Percy, Mark Lunney and Paul Robinson took the first three places.
The next day brought beautiful weather and more cracking racing from the young guns. Race two was shaping up to be a real hope for the local lad as he got away in fourth from the line, and was running with the top guys. Josh's challenge ended when a few laps in he was knocked offline when another rider's brake jammed, and the bump lost him three seconds dropping him down to eighth. Despite the setback he regained his composure and to the delight of his team and supporters, fought back to another fourth with Percy again taking the win from Irwin and Drew Jamieson.
The Irwin and Elliott battle resumed in the final race of the day as this time Elliott got away well and took Irwin round the outside on turn one to slot into fourth spot. As Nigel Percy and Mark Lunney fought for the lead on their faster machines, a superb battle developed as Elliott and Irwin were inseparable for the entire race. Irwin clearly had better brakes as despite trying lap after lap to pass at turn one, Elliott could not get his bike stopped in time to make the pass stick.
Deciding that pressure in the closing laps to try and force an error from Irwin was his best option, Elliott closed to touching distance on the last lap in the country section corners, and it worked.
Irwin made a slight mistake trying to defend his line in the last corner and let the Fermanagh lad get better drive out on to the start finish straight. Elliott slip streamed the Antrim 18 year old, and pulled out just before the line and take third by five hundredths of a second!
