TANDRAGEE 100

On Saturday Cameron Donald competed at the Tandragee 100 in Northern Ireland. This race is part of the Irish Road Racing championship held on a demanding 6 mile public road circuit.

This was Cameron’s first time on the Tandragee circuit and did well to learn the technical circuit so quickly. Ending qualifying with strong results being positioned 5^th on the grid for the Superbike class and 3^rd on the grid in the Supersport event.

The first event on Saturday was the Tayto Junior Open Superbike race. Cameron got a good start and pushed through to third position on the first lap. He then went to take the lead ahead of Martin Finnegan on the Klaffi Honda and Raymond Porter on his JD Motors Yamaha R1. Cameron Donald rode around the Tandragee 100 like he had been there a thousand times and pulled ahead of Martin Finnegan with a 3.9 sec lead.

Cameron said after the race “I’m so happy. I’d never ridden this track before but I certainly like it. It’s definitely a rider’s track. The Uel Duncan/Robinson’s Concrete Superbike is running very well and I am looking forward to the final race”

The next event for Cameron was the 600cc Supersport race. The race was delayed after a red flag on the first lap. An oil spill on the track meant a long delay on the grid and the weather went from fine to rain to fine again. The restart was declared a wet race although the track was drying. Cameron made the decision to stay with the dry weather set-up for the restart. As the race began so did the rain and with the majority of the leading riders going for a wet weather set-up Cameron fell behind to 9^th position on the first lap. As the race continued Cameron managed to push through to finish with 4^th place.

“That was a really tough race. It took me a few laps to come to terms with the bike slipping and sliding on the dry weather tires so to be able to take fourth position I am very pleased.”

Next up was the main event the prestigious Tandragee 100 Superbike race. After a successful day Cameron was feeling comfortable with his set-up and looking forward to a dry race.

Cameron starting again from 5^th position on the grid got away to an ok start to enter turn one in sixth position. He immediately began to work his way through the field as he could see Martin Finnegan with clear track ahead of him building a lead. By lap four, after some close racing Cameron had taken 2^nd position and with his head down started reeling in Finnegan. Taking the lead on lap five he left the Klaffi Honda behind to take the chequered flag. During this race he also smashed the outright circuit record with a speed of 106.75mph.

“This is such an awesome result for myself and the Uel Duncan team. Once catching Martin I knew I had to put ground between us going into the last lap so worked very hard at putting in some fast laps. To take the win and a new lap record is definitely the highlight of my season so far! A big thanks to all the team and crew that helped this weekend. Bring on the North West 200!!!”

Cameron is racing at the North West 200 this week, competing in the Superbike, Supersport and Superstock classes. Race day is Saturday 13^th May 2006.