For the second time in consecutive weekends at back to back Irish road races, Northamptonshire’s Maria Costello MBE was again knocking on the door of a top ten finish, but took the chequered flag in 11th place - this time in the Supertwins race at Walderstown.

Fresh from racing her European Shoe Machinery Company/Hol-Taj backed Kawasaki ER6 ‘Pizza race bike’ at the Skerries 100, Maria arrived at the Fore Motor Cycle Racing Club event keen to improve on last weekends result. but rain and wet roads resulted in the organisers reducing qualifying to five controlled laps.

Maria explained:

“It’s the same for everyone but controlled laps rule out any chance of working on bike set up and grids would be set on championship points, although the club did offer, much appreciated, extra laps behind other races, come race day.”

Despite the odd short shower, race day was mainly bathed in sunshine, providing good road conditions for racing. A few spots of rain covered Costello’s visor as she took up her place on the grid in 14th, for her one and only race of the day. Maria didn’t get as good a start as the row ahead so she was playing catch from the start. With more laps she believes she could have made better progress as she set her fastest lap of the race on the final lap but took 11th place at the chequered flag. Conor Behan took the race victory after a tussle with 2nd placed Michael Sweeney.

After the race, Costello reflected on another Irish road race finish:

“At first I was disappointed with 11th, but on reflection I’m really happy with improving my best ever lap of the Race of the South by a whole second. It’s not long ago that I was on crutches. The leg pain has reduced and I’m definitely more comfortable on the bike, so I’ll be removing the mods we made to the bike for the TT at Armoy. I want more next time out and I’ll be training hard in the run up to Armoy to achieve that!”


Special thanks are extended to The Hopkins family at the St Marks Lake Shore Accommodation in Glasson; Michael Junior Hopkins, Tommy Lennon & Barry Cassells for the spannering and help during the event; Shannon Connolly for holding the brolly and all of the organisers, marshals and supporters for making it an especially enjoyable and well run event.

Next up for Costello is the ‘Race of Legends’ at Armoy in Northern Ireland, held on Friday 25th and Saturday 26th July. Maria will also be making an appearance at the Belfast Motor Show on Sunday 27th July between 12 and 3pm, at the Kings Hall Complex.



Further details about the Armoy race of legends can be found here: http://www.amrrc.com/ whilst the Belfast Motor Show has details here: http://www.belfastmotorshow.co.uk/#!show...ights/c66t

For all of the latest news on Maria and her events, please visit her website at http://www.costelloracing.com or follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MariaCostello



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