Athea Road Racing Club - A Brief History

Motorcycle racing enthusiast James (JJ) Kelly originally from Listowel, Co Kerry after years of searching, reckoned that he had found a stretch of road in Athea perfect for motorcycle racing, calling in to The Gables Bar in Athea, he met with the owner Connie Herbert and they discussed this proposal.
The Result was that after a lot of very hard work by a dedicated team and tremendous co operation from the local community, the first Athea Motorcycle Road Racing was held in 2002. The first race date was a washout, races cancelled due to heavy rain and strong winds which would have been a danger to high speed motorcycle racers.
This cancellation put a severe strain on the financial resources of the club e.g. helicopter ambulances for the Saturday and Sunday had to be paid, all running costs had to be duplicated when a rescheduled date was set 3 months later on 27th & 28th July 2002.
Since 2002 the Athea Road Races have gone from strength to strength with local gardai estimating over 20,000 attending this year's event. The Athea Club have now made this event a permanent fixture on the National Road Racing Calendar.
A huge amount of work goes into organising such an event, with great support being received at all times from Officials of MCUI, other clubs members, gardai, scruitineers, medics and of course all the marshals and crowd control people who without their participation, our event would not be possible.
Safety has always been a major priority with our club, and thus in 2007, the club introduced the idea of purchasing synthetic bales. JJ Kelly designed the white synthetic bales that you now see around all the road races in the South. These were welcomed by all of the clubs, and thus as well as they being a far superior form of safety it is hoped over time they will help reduce each clubs annual bills.
Athea's commitment to the riders excels by they focusing on having one of the largest Prize Funds in the South. Sponsorship comes from both Local and National companies, large and small and the introduction of Quinn Direct as a Major Sponsor in 2007 was indeed a great achievement for the club. However in the last year due to the economic downturn our major Sponsor withdrew their sponsorship, we had to fundraise quite heavily to make sure the event could be held in 2009, the club would like to thank all who supported our poker runs and honda 50 runs throughout the year.   
A big thank you to all who has made this event possible especially, James (JJ) Kelly who made his dream of bringing motorcycle road racing to the South West of Ireland come true, Connie Herbert who achieved what he set out to do, which was to put Athea on the map and for everyone else who in any way has made this possible, a sincere Thank you.

Hon. Life Member/ Founder : Mr. James Kelly.

President: Mr. Eamon Roche.

Chairperson/ PRO: Mr. Conor Harnett.

Treasurer: Mr. Connie Herbert.

Assistant Treasurer: Mr. Mike Murphy.

Race Secretary: Ms. Joanne Kelly Walsh.

Assistant Secretary: Ms. Margaret Carroll

Assistant Secretary: Ms. Catherine Connolly.

Committee:  Pat Hayes, James Hayes, Joe Whelan, 

Edmund Hayes, Timmy Kelly, Joe Grimes, 

Anne McElligott Kelly, Jerry Bruder.