The Andreas Racing Association club championships reached a soggy conclusion at Jurby Motordrome on Sunday.

Paul Cassidy has enjoyed a dominant season, winning both the Single, Twin, Triple and 700cc titles.

Kyle Casement had the 600cc class under control while his first cousin Ryan Cringle had the ACU Centre solo championship well-and-truly sewn-up going into the final round.

The sidecar Centre championship was still to be settled, but this came to a somewhat bizarre conclusion.

Ireland’s Derek Marshall rode the test day on Saturday, but then discovered that his passenger was unavailable for Sunday’s races, so he was a non-starter, along with defending champions Craig Melvin and Stu Christian as the driver had a bad case of conjunctivitis.

When Mike Jackson and Jake Roberts suffered an engine blow up on the warm-up lap,  only one crew was left – brothers Jim and Ben Gale.

So neither race was held as a consequence, and the latter crew took the championship honours as they led Melvin/Christian by 25 points going into the event.

It was a maiden title for the 790cc KTM twin-powered Gales at the conclusion of their third year of racing, but not the way they would have chosen to win it.

They now have a target to chase as their father Dicky won no fewer than six Isle of Man Centre ACU titles with three different drivers between 1986 and 2007.

Both of the solo Centre championship races were close affairs between the aforementioned Cringle and first-year clubman Grant Thomson, who had only jettisoned his rookie jacket a couple of weeks earlier.

The opening eight-lapper took place in constant rain when Thomson’s 600cc Kawasaki was less of a handful than Cringle’s 1000cc Honda Fireblade.

The lead swapped hands several times, but at the chequered flag Cringle took the win by 0.129 of a second. Jamie Cringle was a steady third in his first race on the AGR Motorsport team’s second Fireblade.

Later, in somewhat drier conditions, Thomson again pushed Cringle hard all the way, but the ‘blade had the speed down the back straight and he used the extra bhp to keep his nose in front by a slightly narrower margin of 0.094s.

It is disappointing to report that Paul Turner was the only other rider to contest this race, but with the title already decided and the conditions less than inviting, it was no real surprise that anyone else was willing to give it a go.

Thomson won both 600cc races to seal second place in the club championship behind Casement (having also netted third in the unlimited capacity Centre series) and he completed a highly successful first year on home circuits by also mopping up in the clubman class.

Wayne Avis of Douglas was runner-up to Thomson in both 600cc races and the first of the Novice/Clubman races, but a DNF in the second of those let Mark Raine into second spot on the day and overall as only a handful of points had separated them.

Peel men Marc Colvin and Matthew Corkill won a race apiece in the combined 700cc four-stroke twins and Pre-Injection 600s, the significance of which being that the latter man secured the 600 PI class overall.

Similar to Thomson, Luke McKinlay ended the meeting with four wins to his name and a club championship.

The 28-year-old from Ramsey, riding a machine that he basically put together in his shed (a 300cc KTM two-stroke motor slotted into a Honda Moto3 chassis) won both combined Lightweight. Singles, CB500 races to well and truly wrap-up the Singles title for 2023.

Juan Hunter was the first CB500 rider home in each, but Cameron Brown was close on his tail to assure himself of the club championship.

Brian Moffitt led the Lightweight bikes in the opening race and young Aron Redmond of Ballaugh took the second, but Moffitt edged the title in what has been a neck-and-neck series.

On-form McKinlay also doubled up in the Single, Twin, Triple class (in the absence of series winner Cassidy), while Andreas club chairman Neal Champion returned from injury to be first Post-Classic rider home in each (fifth and third overall), although that class was secured by Laurence Cummins on a Honda VFR.