ARMOY ROAD RACES TO PAY TRIBUTE TO WAYNE HAMILTON

At this year’s Armoy Road Races there will be a new memorial trophy, the Wayne Hamilton Memorial Trophy, in honour of Northern Ireland road racer Wayne Hamilton, who sadly lost his life at the Manx Grand Prix Festival on the Isle of Man last year.

At the time of his death many said that Wayne was a future superstar and the Armoy Motorcycle Road Racing Club like many others agreed with those accolades.

Bill Kennedy, Clerk of the Course at Armoy Road Races, said, “Wayne raced at Armoy on several occasions and was our first ever Armoy race winner with his first race back in 2009. Wayne was a great ambassador for our sport and at an early stage I believed he had a great career in road racing – but it sadly wasn’t to be!

“The Club felt strongly about paying their respect to Wayne with a memorial trophy and along with Mr Damien McClafferty from McClafferty’s Bar, who has kindly donated the £250 prize money, Wayne will be remembered in Armoy for his achievement.

“Wayne Hamilton was larger than life and we’ve great memories of him. He will be very much missed at Armoy this year.”

The Wayne Hamilton Memorial Trophy is sponsored by both AMRRC and McClafferty’s Bar in Armoy and is for the ‘Support Man of the Meeting’ which is based on an aggregate score of the Junior and Senior support races. 

Davy Hamilton, father of Wayne, said, “I’m proud as punch that the Armoy Club would recognise my son in this way. He loved what he done and he really enjoyed the racing at Armoy. His first race was back in 2009 and even then he thought highly of the race and the Club.

“I’d like to wish the Club all the very best for the future.”