THE Cork-based team #109 Retro Traffic Kove clinched the last-ever World SuperSport 300 championship with victory in the final race at Jerez where their Spanish rider Banat Fernandez (17) took his third win and tenth podium of the season.
It was a weekend full of emotion, not only for Fernandez but also for Rosscarbery's Dave and Mairead Hurley and their daughters Catriona and Jacqui. Team #109 Retro Traffic Kove are the first Irish motorcycle team to win a World Championship title. It is also the first title for a Chinese manufacturer.
The team was set up in 2015 in honour of Ballinhassig's Sean Hurley, who lost his life in a tragic road accident. Sean was a talented motorcyclist and won the Irish Supersport Championship in 2011. Only days before his untimely passing in November that year, he had drawn up a ‘bucket list’ that included a wish to be a
ADVERTISEMENT
World Superbike winner. Four years later, the formation of Team #109 was the beginning of the plan to achieve that ambition. And now they have achieved it.
Teenager Fernandez was one of four riders in the championship shoot-out. In Saturday's race that was red-flagged after an accident, Fernandez was seemingly on his way to increasing his ten-point championship lead before contact from the Kawasaki of Dutch rider Loris Veneman put him in the gravel. Although he made a great recovery he finished P16. However, after the race the stewards penalised Veneman and promoted Fernandez into P15 that gave him a single championship point.
The Irish and Basque flags are waved in Jerez. (Photo: Tim Fritzsch)
In terms of the series, Fernandez retained his lead, albeit by three points ahead of Australian Carter Thompson and Spain's David Salvador, with Italian Matteo Vannucci a further 19 points adrift.
In a tense encounter and with numerous lead changes throughout the 12 laps, the title went right to the very end. Fernandez headed the pack as they emerged out of the last corner with Salvador menacingly close. As they raced for the line Fernandez kept his composure and took the chequered flag 19/1000ths of a second ahead of Salvador, who was subsequently penalised three seconds for irresponsible riding and demoted to 16th. Thompson was sixth to claim second in the championship with Salvador third.
Fernandez said: ‘I need to thank the team and all the people around me. I just tried to do my best. I knew the bike worked and I knew the team was giving 100 percent for me, so I just believed. Here we are now, not just me – but the team and the brand – we’re World champions.’
Meanwhile, Drinagh co-driver Denis O'Donovan and his Wexford driver James Boland had to be content with sixth place in last weekend's Cork Startrek Navigation Trial. Victory in the event, a round of the National and Munster Navigation Championships, went to the north Cork crew of Patrick Murphy/Aaron O'Regan.Ovens driver Owen Murphy and Donoughmore's Patrick O'Sullivan finished third, all three crews in Subaru Imprezas. The Bantry crew of Seamus McHugh/Thomas Mulcahy (Suzuki Ignis) were second in the Novice category.
