Cork-based Team #109 Retro Traffic Kove become first ever Irish motorcycle team to win World Title

A four way title decider went right down to the last race of the season as Spanish rookie Banat Fernandez took the chequered flag to seal the World SuperSport 300 Championship title in emotional circumstances

Spanish teenager Benat Fernandez races with the Cork based Team #109 Retro Traffic Kove team. Picture: Vaclav Duska Jr.

The Irish and Basque flags flew proudly on a pole attached to the Cork based Team #109 Retro Traffic Kove motorbike of seventeen year Spanish rookie Banat Fernandez after they won the last-ever World SuperSport 300 Championship title in dramatic circumstances at Jerez.

A four way title decider went right down to the last race of the season as Fernandez took the chequered flag to seal the series in emotional circumstances. 

Immediately after his outstanding success Fernandez stopped and looked to the skies in memory of his mother, who passed away five years ago when he was just twelve years old. 

From an Irish context, it was also a poignant occasion, particularly for the Hurley family from Ballinhassig as Team #109 was set up in honour of Sean Hurley, the 2011 Irish Supersport champion, who lost his life in a road accident in 2011.

Fernandez brought a ten-point lead to into Saturday's penultimate round where Australian Carter Thompson - his nearest rival along with Spaniard David Salvador and Italian Matteo Vannucci were all in the title equation.

Remarkably, that same situation pertained into the final decider. However, Saturday's race was certainly not without incident. Thompson looked to be out of the equation when he was thrown from his Kawasaki, although he remounted, he was well behind the pack and seemingly out of the points. 

Then, the race was red flagged after an incident involving three riders. When it re-started (as a five lap race) Thompson began from P26.

Fernandez got off to a good start with Salvador in hot pursuit. Both title rivals battled within a group of six riders until Loris Veneman (MTM Kawasaki) and Fernandez both ran wide into Turn 1 onto the gravel. 

The excursion ended Fernandez' hopes of annexing top points and he crossed the line in P16 (behind Veneman - Thompson's team mate) a position outside of the points. 

After the race, the stewards applied a penalty to Veneman that promoted Fernandez to a single-point-scoring P15 and a three points lead over both Thompson and Salvador. Vanucci won the race from Salvador.

Tensions were very high prior to the start of the title decider. With lead changes throughout, it finally came down to the final lap and indeed, the final corner where Fernandez and Salvador were almost wheel to wheel in an extremely tight situation. Fernandez took the chequered flag - 19/1000ths of a second - in front of Salvador. 

Such was the frenetic nature of racing at the last corner, several riders incurred time penalties including Thompson, who was penalised three seconds for what the stewards deemed "Irresponsible Riding".

That dropped him to sixteenth and promoted former Team #109 rider Daniel Mogeda to second. Thompson was sixth with Vanucci, following a penalty, finishing ninth. 

Team #109 Retro Traffic Kove are the first ever Irish motorcycle team to win a World title. Next season, the series will be replaced a new World Sportbike class.