Tandragee Clerk of Course Anne Forsythe 'wasn't prepared to take any more chances'

The popular national road race returned to the calendar for the first time since 2019 after back-to-back cancellations due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and glorious weather greeted riders and spectators for qualifying on Friday.

However, the expected wet weather arrived on cue on Saturday and only three of the scheduled nine races were run, with Forsythe – who became the first female road racing Clerk of the Course in 2013 – calling a halt to proceedings at around 3.30pm.

Three red-flag incidents occurred in the same area of the 5.3-mile course in the Junior Classic, Superbike and Supersport events, thankfully with no serious injuries reported.

It was after the third stoppage of the day in the Supersport 600 race that the decision was made to abandon the event.

“We did what we could but we knew the weather was going to get worse as the afternoon went on, and we just couldn’t take any more chances,” said Forsythe.

“The incidents we had weren’t in exactly the same place, but they were all there or thereabouts. In one of the incidents one of the bikes had put some fuel down and we cleaned that up, but there was a patch of shiny tar was causing problems and it just wasn’t going to work.

“It was right on the racing line through a series of S-bends after Marlacoo at the very spot where the riders were putting the power on in the middle of the road.

“We knew the weather was only going to get worse as well.”

Forsythe has spoken to some of the riders who crashed on Saturday and revealed they were relatively unscathed.

“I was speaking to Forest Dunn and Matthew Rees and they were both feeling fine, and Tom Robinson was grand as well. I’m sure they’re feeling a bit stiff today but overall they’re okay,” she said.

“We can’t control the weather but there did seem to be a good crowd, and what I was really pleased about is that most of them stayed.

“We had a few delays with rider recovery, checking the course after the incidents and a bit of clearing up to do, but the spectators were patient and stayed with us.”

The Tandragee race chief also addressed suggestions that some racing should have been held on Friday evening after practice.

“There may be a few who say we should’ve run a race on Friday when the weather was so good, and we did consider that. But we had so many newcomers that we wanted to give them two separate sessions to get them the full benefit of time on the circuit,” Forsythe said.

“We also wanted two separate sessions for safety reasons because we had a mix of experienced and inexperienced newcomers to Tandragee, on a host of different classes of bikes from classic machinery right up to Superbikes.

“So that ate into the time we had on Friday and by the time practice was over, the low sun was a problem and we just didn’t want to take any chances.

“I want to say a huge thanks to the whole team because they have done an amazing job. They worked in the pouring rain on Saturday night to get everything taken down and we had three lorries loaded to take safety bales to the North West 200.

“I’m so proud of them all because they really worked so hard, and we’ll soon be starting again to work towards 2023.”