The Kurri Kurri Junior Motorcycle Club instigated the trophy back in 2015 and the following year Kirkness was chasing eventual winner Jarred Brook when he fell in the final.

Kirkness had not tried again to win the trophy and can thank the enthusiasm of his son Axel to ride at the meeting that convinced Michael "to have a ride" at the Easter Saturday meeting.

Young Axel rode in the non-competitive Division 1 class for the sport's newcomers, but dad was up against a few tough opponents in his races.

Michael did not contest all rounds of the Pro 450 class so he did not feature in the overall placings, but he had been prominent against the ultimate top three of Cody Lewis, Brayden Gay and Noah Cardinale.

Heats of the Casey Stoner Senior Cup confirmed that Kirkness, Lewis and Gay would battle it out and when Kirkness got to the lead early in the final he proved too strong for the Yamaha backed Lewis who had also finished second last year and is a previous Junior Cup winner, while the steadily improving Gay was not far away in third.

Another previous Cup placegetter Jacob Richardson was, unfortunately, sidelined after a spill with Ben Rolla early in the day.

The Over 35s only had four starters and their races were no less intense or closely fought with Angie Reekie coming out on top, while Talon Cardinale beat Cody Wilby in the Pro 250 class.

Racing in all the junior classes took on extra significance as the New South Wales Junior Dirt Track Championships will be staged at the same venue on the weekend of April 13 and 14 so many riders were having their first go at the track in preparation for the title meeting.

The oldest age bracket for the juniors contested the Casey Stoner Junior Cup and this resulted in an emphatic victory for Queensland rider Bodie Paige ahead of another Queenslander Cooper Archibald with local rider Max Earl claiming third.

Both Bodie Paige and Cooper Archibald scored a victory in another class.

Other class winners were Flynn Beard and Kru Tulloch, who both also scored a minor placing, as well as Hayden Duggan, Theo Afeaki and another local Brax Anderson, while Matilda Heaton-New was the winner of the Girls class.

This meeting again showed that the quality of the racing turned on by the juniors invariably matches the seniors, and with championship honours up for grabs on April 13 and 14 it will be another meeting worth watching.