Melvin takes a clean sweep in the juniors at Jurby

The final round of the 2026 Jurby MRSports championship was held last Sunday at the JCK Kart Track in beautiful dry sunny conditions. producing some exciting racing.

With the Bregazzi brothers away in Portugal on ISDE duties, there was a reduced field of plop warriors present in the warm autumn sunshine.

A returning Tom ‘Tweeks’ Dawson sparked interest and speculation that the 2024 champion could take the fight to Phil Gunnell who looked to have almost wrapped up the 2026 title.

As well as the racing men of the plop brigade, there was a strong female presence present on the day: Kelly Anderson, the Scot, who has been on good form of late and as the day wore on produced her fastest ever lap and stood on the podium.

Judy Bullough was also in the mix, while Millie Bottomley was able to find fast laps as the day progressed.

Heat one was a great battle at the head of the field with Gunnell being chased by the ultra-quick Dawson and Simon Bottomley.

There was drama at Radio Faasaagh Corner, at the paddock entrance, for the returning Dawson as his machine high-sided and tried to put him in the bales.

By sheer chance, the airborne Dawson was deposited back in the saddle and was able to carry on. Bottomley took full advantage of the situation and took second place at the flag.

Heat two witnessed more drama. Exiting the Museum Corner, the right-hander at top of the end of the circuit, three riders all went for the same piece of road on lap two, resulting in Gunnell and Bottomley hitting the ground – very heavily in Gunnell’s case, resulting in a broken collarbone.

The third rider involved in the incident, Dawson managed to stay on the bike to take the chequered flag ahead of the remounted Bottomley who followed 21 seconds later. In third was Anderson who was enjoying a superb day at the track.

By the final, a determined Bottomley was not going to accept anything other than a win and managed to achieve this despite massive pressure from Dawson.

This was Bottomley’s first victory and, having amassed a good haul of points, this was enough to push him ahead of the absent Bregazzi and finish second in the championship.

There were three different winners on the day but the overall plop champion for 2026 was Gunnell.

The junior pitbike championship was all about Toby Melvin going for an unprecedented full house of race wins.

As the day rolled on, that is exactly what he achieved: not under pressure from his fellow competitors, but the pressure he had on himself to complete the full tally of 24 wins.

Layton Murphy came the closest to the runaway Melvin, finishing six seconds behind at the flag in the opening heat.

Josh Hurst, Oscar Griffiths and Murphy shared the track with the dominant Melvin who rode a champion’s season. He broke the junior lap record in the previous meeting and, with his 24 wins, it was mission complete.

There was the sound of a well-deserved burnout in the paddock afterwards as Melvin celebrated his junior pitbike championship ahead of moving on to pastures new in the senior classes next season.

In the absence of Freddie Craine, open pitbike champion-elect, Patrick Venus took full advantage to cement the runner-up spot in the championship with the gentlemen’s set of three race wins in the class.

In heat one, it was again the fast-starting Richard Murphy who got off the line first but, by Radio Faasaagh Corner on lap one, Venus had taken the lead and cleared off into the distance for a comfortable race victory of 19 seconds from Murphy who did enough to keep Shaun Griffiths at bay, while Harry Boyle was fourth.

In heat two, it was much of the same as Venus took the lead, swooping past Murphy at the Hairpin section on lap one and the order remained processional, with Murphy again taking the runner-up spot and Griffiths a slightly more distant third place.

The final was a different kettle of fish and did not disappoint, with Jack Meechan having a one-off outing in the open class on his 140cc bike and starting from the back of the grid.

Both Meechan and Venus made short work of Murphy at the Hairpin section on lap one, with Venus taking the lead and Meechan hot on his heals.

Lap after lap they circulated nose to tail keeping the crowd on the toes punching in some 52 second laps but, try as he might, Meechan’s 140cc bike lacked the grunt of the bigger 190cc mount of Venus.

Sensing his tyres were going off at two thirds race distance, Meechan backed off and settled for the runner-up spot, with Murphy a distant third and Griffiths in fourth a lap down.

The 140cc pitbike class was the only class where the championship would be decided in the last round.

As only the best seven rounds count, young Connor Percival held a 25-point advantage over Jack Haybyrne going into the finale. All Percival had to do was finish ahead of Haybyrne and he would be crowned champion in his debut year in the class, having moved up from the juniors.

Jack Meechan was the runaway winner of all his races bringing his total to 15 victories but, having missed two rounds, he was not in the hunt for the championship.

Percival got the better of Haybyrne with three runner-up finishes to claim the title by a margin of 35 points.

A mistake by Haybyrne in heat one at the Hairpin section when trying to pass William Forgie cost him third place.

In the final, he made another mistake when upending his bike at the Hairpin section at mid-race distance but he remounted in fifth and fought through to pass Scott Compsty, who has finally found a bit of form of late.

Haybyrne then muscled past season-long rival Forgie on the penultimate lap at the Museum Corner to secure his second podium of the day.

This weekend sees the annual six-hour Plop Endurance event take place on Saturday, featuring teams of up to four riders.

This is a fun occasion which brings the curtain down on the 2026 season and has an early start this year at 10am. Admission is free and there will be a catering van and race commentary, with regular updates as the action unfolds.

PETER MYLCHREEST AND PAUL COPPARELLI