MOTORBIKE rider Phil Guillou was forced to pull out of the Ulster Grand Prix due to wet conditions. He believes his decision was vindicated as half the riders who started the race retired.

Rain had been heavy overnight and during the morning of race day and parts of the very fast 7.4-mile road circuit which has many blind corners was flooded, meaning racing was delayed for about two hours.

‘I decided it was too dangerous for me to go out on a track I was still learning and race hard for a good position, so unfortunately I had to sit the race out.

‘It was quite disappointing as had it been dry I could have had a good result,’ said Guillou.

‘My decision was the right one as over half the 250 field retired due to the conditions.’

Engine problems with his Yamaha TZ250 mean that his season may be over as he has to wait for new parts to arrive from Japan and then rebuild the engine.

Before heading to Ulster, Guillou undertook testing at Donington Park but the engine did not feel right so was completely stripped and a crank and crank-case problem found and tidied up as well as possible.

He went out qualifying for the New Ena 250 GP Superclub event and he managed to do so on the second row of the grid of 32 riders.

Guillou was in fourth place at the end of the first lap and moved up to third but then the bike started sliding around quite badly and he had no choice but to retire.

Days earlier in other warm-up Dundrod national races in Ulster he had finished a creditable fifth and third out of 45 on the starting grid and it had looked promising for the big race before the weather put paid to his chances.