Newmills Lewis seals World Final grid spot

NEWMILLS lad Lewis Mullen achieved his number one goal for the 2022 season at the weekend when he sealed his place in the FIM Ohvale World Championship final.

Having endured a frustrating start to the campaign with some crashes and inconsistency, the 11-year-old faced an uphill battle to finish in the top two in the overall standings.

But the talented Michael Laverty VisionTrack Academy rider never lost faith or focus and over the last three rounds, including on Sunday at Whiteriver, he proved unbeatable to finish second overall, missing out on the Irish crown by just four points in the end.

“He turned it around over the last three rounds,” beamed Lewis’s dad, Adrian.

“It was a good finish to the season, which started badly for him over the first three rounds but he won the last three rounds!

“That’s all he wanted all year, to get to Valencia, to make that final and I’m glad he’s getting it.”

The Cookstown High School pupil was down to fifth in the overall standings by the mid-point of the season but he turned it around with three first overalls in a row to secure his spot on the grid at Valencia MotoGP in November when he will take on the best youngsters in the world in front of the sport’s biggest stars.

“Valencia should be good, it will be a great experience,” Adrian added. “There are 16 countries in it, so it should be awesome!

“He’ll be racing riders from Spain, Holland, France, America, Australia, Japan, China, it’s a proper mini MotoGP!”

And in order to make it a fair fight on the track, the bikes the riders will race on will be supplied by the organisers and on a circuit none of them (hopefully) have ever seen before.

“We just have to fly out – bikes, leathers, helmets are all supplied,” Adrian explained.

“The track is supposed to be new every year so no one has an advantage as well and each of the riders will have a MotoGP rider as a mentor.

“And the MotoGP riders come into the paddock to watch it, it will be an amazing experience just to be there!”