Portadown starlet Ethan Gawley ends season as Ulster champion before taking on Europe's best with Ireland

The talented 11-year-old wrapped up the Beyond Signage 65 winter series championship and despite suffering a broken arm in May, the youngster fought back to fitness ending the season with a fourth in the final round of the British MX Nationals at Hawkstone Park.

Certainly one of the stars for the future, Gawley is making his mark as he has stepped up to the S/W 85 class on a k-tech KTM.

At last weekend’s Beyond Signage winter series at Magilligan MX Park, Gawley missed out on his first Devine Auto Repairs S/W85 class overall by one point.

After finishing fifth in his opening race and second in race two, the Seagoe Primary School pupil was leading race three comfortably before a coming together with a back marker caused him to crash out of the lead.

He managed to remount and finish second behind Dungannon’s Daniel Devine, who was the eventual overall class winner.

“With a little bit of luck I could have won the overall today,” said a disappointed Gawley.

Elsewhere, in the Ross Quarry Products 125 class, 15-year-old Cole McCullough was having his first race on the factory Fantic Racing 125 that he will ride in the 2024 season.

By the end of the meeting, the Castlederg teenager was unbeaten with three wins from three starts.

He was pleased with his debut on the Italian machine.

"Dad collected the bikes during the week from the factory in Italy and we tested it for the first yesterday,” he said. “It’s nice to win first time out but we knew the bike would be good.

"I raced against them during the EMX series this year and they holeshotted every race.

"The speed of bike was unreal.

"We decided that we needed a quicker bike and they were the best bike to get.”

He will race the Fantic in the EMX Championship and Dutch Masters in 2024 with his first race at the Hawkstone International at the end of February.

Lewis Spratt was another rider stepping up a class at Magilligan.

The Omagh teenager, who won the 2023 Ulster B/W85 Championship, finished second overall in the 125 class.

“We are still trying to get the bike dialled in to my way of riding,” he said. “It’s a new challenge and good fun.”

Meanwhile, English visitor Lyall Rutherford was unbeaten in the Carmichael Cars 65 class, mastering the difficult conditions on his KTM.

Max Jones and Cole McAuley completed the rostrum.

In the Ziggicig Larne B/W85 class, Finley Pickering from England scored maximum points for the overall with Bobby Burns and Ollie Holland finishing second and third.

It was hard work for the TC Commercials Auto riders in the tricky conditions with the little bikes getting bogged down at times in the wet, but in the end it was Londonderry’s Jake Sayers who triumphed with two wins and a second on his GasGas machine.

Ellik Miller with a second, a third and victory in race three, claimed second overall while Archie Lavery finished third.