Connall Courtney's 2016 season with Team ILR concluded on Saturday at Bishopscourt when, after a season spent in the BSB Motostar (Moto 3 Standard Class) Championship, the young rider from Warrenpoint competed on 'home' tarmac at the annual Sunflower Trophy races.

On the tuned NSF 250 Honda for the first time, Connall qualified in 5th place overall, thanks to two top five qualifying sessions, and thankfully as early rain gave way to dry, sunny conditions he took his place on the front row of the grid for the first of Saturday's two races over 8 laps.

Fourth at the end of the opening lap, Connall then dropped to fifth as Robert Kennedy got past, but with the retirement of Cahal Graham soon after, Courtney found himself back in fourth with Kennedy moving well clear in third.

Connall was able to bring the Honda home in a very safe fourth, 21.59 seconds ahead of the 2016 Irish Moto 3 (125 GP) Short Circuit Champion Luke Clements for a very good start to his day.

Race two over seven laps saw Courtney enjoy a good scrap with Cahal Graham, 5th and 4th in the 2016 Irish and Ulster Moto 3 (125 GP) Short Circuit Championships respectively, with Graham just getting the nod for fourth by half a second and Connall in turn well ahead of sixth place man Nigel Moore.

The 2016 Sunflower Trophy meeting also incorporated the Ronnie Donnan Memorial Parade Laps which saw Team ILR owner/manager Ian Lougher take part on John Chapman's 500MV Agusta.  

Ian Lougher:

"It's quite unusual to get such good weather at Bishopscourt in late October but we were blessed with quite a nice enjoyable weekend, and I'm glad to say Connall really enjoyed riding our tuned NSF250F.

With limited time to get used to the different engine and chassis spec'd machine he normally rides, Connall acclimatised himself well and got into a good pace fairly quickly and finished the day with some decent results on home turf."

Connall Courtney:

"2016 is finished and it's certainly been a testing year.

We knew it would be a difficult year going into the season and it was, but at the same time it was a season that I could take a lot of positives out of.
I developed a lot through the year and got some really positive results.

It was hard having to start from scratch every weekend having to learn every new track I went to and we suffered a setback with a nasty injury in the mid-season but despite this, I felt real progression when I came back to tracks I had been to earlier in the year.

The Sunflower was a really strong end to the year.

The meeting had a very strong field and I was happy with how comfortable I felt on the new bike and I was able to find a comfortable rhythm and built from there.

To come away with a 4th and a 5th against some strong opposition having never ridden the bike before was really satisfying for me and it motivated me for 2017.

I want to say a massive thank-you to everyone in the team for helping me throughout the year.

I learned a lot and can hopefully build on this progress next season."