Defending Irish Superbike Champion, Ballygowan’s Michael Pearson, returned home from Mondello Park in Co-Kildare almost as soon as he had arrived, with Pearson saying that the Mondello track was just to dangerous for him to try and make his come back after his Easter Weekend that saw him hospitalised after crashing out on cold tyres.

Pearson, who was passed fit to ride last Wednesday, travelled down to Mondello on Friday evening, and took part in practice on Saturday, but with heavy rain and hail storms making the Co-Kildare track almost unrideable, Pearson decided that it was not for him and decided to give the meeting amiss after he slipped off uninjured during practice.

He said: "I wish I had not even bothered travelling down last weekend. I rang my team manager to tell him that I was not for riding in those conditions after taking a very minor spill in practice.

"I could not believe it when he told me that he was golfing in perfect sunshine, and we were being drenched to say the least. The track itself was extremely slippy, with alot of rubber being left by the cars the previous week, and with the rain, it was making it like an ice rink. Every corner that I went around in practice, there were bikes and riders skidding off the track, and then just as I had decided enough was enough, I lost the bike in a minor slid and down I went.

"I was not injured and very little damage was done to the bike. I just could not risk injuring the right hand again which is still only about 85% mended, so I think caution was the better side of valour in this instance. I will return to Mondello in two weeks time, but surely this weather must improve. Between rain, hail, sleet and snow, I just do not know what will come next, but those conditions are not for me."