Carl Phillips has first shot at being crowned Ulster Superbike champion for second time at Bishopscourt but Jonny Campbell aiming to spoil party
Lisburn’s Carl Phillips could potentially clinch the SBT Ireland Ulster Superbike title for a second time at the penultimate round of the championship today at Bishopscourt in Co Down.
Phillips heads into the MCRRCI’s meeting leading reigning champion Jonny Campbell by 58 points.
Ballynahinch man Korie McGreevy is only 17 points further behind in third place for the Cookstown-based McAdoo Racing Kawasaki Team.
With a maximum of 50 points up for grabs today ahead of the short circuit season finale at the Hillsborough Club’s Sunflower Trophy meeting in October, Phillips will be hoping to get the job done with one round to spare.
However, Campbell is hoping to take the title fight to a deciding round in his bid to retain the title after mounting a late charge.
He struggled with his new 155 Racing BMW M1000RR at the beginning of the season, but Campbell hasn’t finished outside of the top two in the last four races, winning twice, and is determined to take the fight to Phillips.
“The weather forecast shows that it could be wet this weekend but whether it’s wet, dry or snowing, we need to pull some points back on Carl to try and take the championship to the Sunflower,” said Campbell.
“I wouldn’t mind if it is a bit wet to be honest. We’ve two races on Saturday and then we’ve two more championship races at the Sunflower.
“Carl is 58 points ahead of me so my main objective this weekend is to try and close nine points on him, which would mean that we’d have to go to the Sunflower [to decide the title].
“I’m going in with the objective that I have to try and win both races on Saturday to take the points I need off Carl and make sure it’s not over until the very last round.
“Anything could happen; he could slip off and that could be him out for the day, and I could get two wins and go to the Sunflower only eight points behind him. You just don’t know, so we have to make sure we try and keep ourselves in it.
“Korie is 17 points behind me but 75 behind Carl, so Korie’s objective is going to be that he needs to beat me in both races, whereas I’m looking at it that I need to beat Carl.
“The top three in the championship are going to go head-to-head and it will either be that Carl is champion on Saturday, or we’ll go to the Sunflower to decide it.
“It’s going to be exciting for the fans.”
A packed programme includes two championship races for Superbikes, Supersport, Moto3, Supersport 300, Lightweight Supersport, Pre Injection, MotoOne, Supertwins and Classic.
Belfast’s Mark Conlin leads the Supersport championship by 19 points from Christian Elkin, with current champion McGreevy in third, just two points further behind.
Practice is scheduled to commence at Bishopscourt from 9am with racing due to get under way from approximately 11:30am. Admission is £15.