Barry Davidson doubles up in Mid Antrim 150 Classics on return of Clough road races
Barry Davidson won both Junior 350 Classics and Senior 500 Classics at the 2026 Mid Antrim 150 in County Antrim, making him one of the standout category specialists at the revived meeting on 1 August. Dunlop’s five race wins dominated the main headlines, but the classic results told a different story about skill and consistency in machinery from earlier racing generations. The published classifications confirm Davidson’s wins against separate podium challengers in the two races.
Junior 350 Classics classification
Davidson finished first in Junior 350 Classics, followed by Nigel Moore in second and Robert McCrum in third. Wattie Brown, Stephen Walsh, Simon Lehane, Bryan Harding, Darren Duncan and Sean Leonard also appeared in the published finishing order. This was a full race field rather than a demonstration run. The category rewards riders able to carry speed and preserve momentum on machines prepared to different technical expectations from modern high-capacity sports bikes.
Senior 500 Classics classification
He then added the Senior 500 Classics victory, with Wattie Brown second, Gary Hutton third and Phil Lunney fourth. These were not two identical podiums repeated over separate sessions: Moore and McCrum were his main finishing rivals in Junior 350, whereas Brown and Hutton provided the leading opposition in Senior 500. The difference helps explain why it is more accurate to call this two independent category victories rather than one result counted twice.
Qualifying showed there would be pressure
The pre-race timing sheet provides further context. In Senior 500 qualifying, Davidson set a 2:21.713, with Gareth Arnold on 2:30.200 and Brown on 2:31.184. The final podium order subsequently changed: Brown was second, while Arnold did not appear in the top four results shown in the race classification. It is important not to conflate qualifying with the race, but the figures do show that Davidson had established pace before the flag fell.
A full classic programme at Clough
Other traditional machinery had their own results. Andy Hornby won Senior 1000 Classics ahead of Andy Kildea and Richard Ford, while Richard Ford won Junior 250 Classics ahead of Gary Hutton and Terence Sansom. Graham McAleese won Classic Superbike and Ryan Whitehall took Classic Supersport. These winners demonstrate that the organisers maintained a broad classic programme, rather than using the meeting exclusively for contemporary Superbike and Supersport names.
Why the revival matters to this class
Mid Antrim returned to the Northern Ireland roads calendar in 2026, and Friday’s planned races were rearranged following weather-related delays. Classic racing can easily be lost in large-event coverage when a headline competitor dominates several modern categories. At Clough the result sheets establish that classic 250, 350, 500 and 1000cc fields all had competitive outings, with named winners and podium places. The meeting gave those categories an identifiable platform for their championship and historical interests.
What Davidson’s double actually tells us
The meaningful measure is not a claim about an unspecified record or an invented winning gap. Two official first-place finishes across different classic classes, the names of his nearest finishers and his 2:21.713 qualifying time are sufficient to establish the sporting result. The comparison with the wider programme makes clear why a major motorcycling event can produce more than one genuine headline, and why a properly sourced local report should preserve the class results alongside Dunlop’s victories.
