Podium success for local racers at Athboy track

THREE local youngsters, Louis Craig and brothers, Boyd and Sonny Knipe, all enjoyed podium success during round three of the Irish Minibike Championships at Athboy Karting Circuit.

The Cookstown trio each scored podium finishes in their respective classes, shining on two wheels as they did so.

Craig, who in his first full season of tarmac racing, was in fantastic form in the BamBam class, leading all three races at one time or another. He showed remarkable powers of recovery in race one, remounting when slipping off during race one, before finishing second. And in the other two races, the only rider to get past him was the vastly more experienced championship leader, Jake Todd.

Sonny Knipe started the season in the BamBam class, but after getting a run on a junior gearbox machine, he decided that was more like it and he excelled on his debut in the new class.

He qualified third on the grid and he held onto that position, fending off more experienced races, to take the final podium place in race one. He showed that wasn’t a flash in the pan in the next two races as he earned another third placed finish in race three after having been up to second in both.

Last year’s Junior Gearbox champion, Sonny’s older brother Boyd Knipe, has moved into the Neil Robinson Memorial Junior Mini GP class for 2025. Despite having to adapt to the different style of machine, the Cookstown lad has showed great potential thus far.

However, at Athboy, he shocked everyone with his performances. Following qualifying, Boyd was second quickest, just fractionally behind short circuit rider Dale Hyland and ahead of another short circuit rider, Buster Sherman Boyd!

In each of his races, he proved his qualifying wasn’t a fluke. In race one, he finished third, and in race two, he led for a lap before dropping to second. It was another lap before he was demoted to third place, but like a tiger, he didn’t let go, and finished the race on the tail of the leading duo! Race three saw another electrifying start, where he took the lead and held it until lap two. However, a gearbox problem caused him to miss a downshift, running wide. Despite the ongoing issue, Boyd maintained his composure and finished the race in third place.

Meanwhile, Newmills lass, Paige Mullen may not have finished on the podium. Nevertheless, she put in some sterling performances on the back of a poor qualifying session that didn’t do her any favours. Still, her dedication and determination saw her push hard to finish in fifth place in race one before taking sixth overall in the MiniGP class at the end of the day.

Cookstown’s Joe Quinn was in action in the Open class, where he put in splendid performances on his CRF 150 Honda to take fifth overall in this competitive class but it was a day to forget for Coalisland’s Adam McStravog. Fuel starvation in race one hampered his progress, and a first-lap spill put him out for the remainder of the meeting.

Cookstown’s Riley Brown suffered a mechanical issue in the opening Junior Elite two stroke race, but recovered to finish the race in second position and went on to take 10th in race two and fifth in race three for fourth overall on the day.