Cookstown 100: Michael Dunlop and Derek Sheils secure wins

Michael Dunlop and Derek Sheils secured wins at the Cookstown 100 road races over the Orritor circuit on Saturday.

Dunlop won Supersport race one on his Honda from McAdoo Racing Kawasaki pair Adam McLean and James Cowton to record his first Cookstown victory since 2015.

Sheils took the Open race honours on a Cookstown BE Racing Suzuki on corrected time after starting from Group B as a result of machine problems in practice.

Michael Dunlop was second, with Michael Sweeney completing the podium places.

Pole position man Derek McGee, last year's man-of-the-meeting, was fourth on a Kawasaki, followed by McLean and Cowton.

The race was reduced to five laps after a lengthy delay to the start caused by mixed circuit conditions caused by rain showers.

Sheils has now won the last five 'big bike' races held over the county Tyrone course, having achieved doubles in the feature and Open events in both 2016 and 2017.

Michael Dunlop on his way to victory in the opening Supersport race on his PTR-prepared Honda

Fifteen-times Isle of Man TT winner Dunlop was competing at the meeting for the first time since 2015 and enjoyed his first competitive outing on the Tyco BMW since agreeing to join the Moneymore-based outfit at the end of March.

His Supersport success took his career tally of wins at Cookstown to 10 and the Ballymoney rider remains the lap record holder for the circuit, with a time of one minute 22.641 seconds from 2013.

Cowton won the second 600cc outing of the day from McLean, Shiels, Michael Dunlop and McGee, the result declared after the race had been red-flagged when Mike Norbury came off uninjured.

McGee won the Moto3/125cc race, with McLean second, Paul Robinson third and Paul Jordan fourth.

Magherafelt rider McLean improved on his raft of runner-up finishes by winning the Supertwins class, which was staged at the third attempt after twice being red-flagged.

A frustrating day for everyone concerned at the meeting came to a conclusion at 18:30 BST, with the main feature race among those which did not take place before the abandonment was announced.

Frequent rain showers and numerous red-flag incidents, none of them serious, punctuated the day's action.

Results

Supersport Race one - 1 Michael Dunlop; 2 Adam McLean; 3 James Cowton; 4 Derek Sheils; 5 Michael Sweeney; 6 Paul Jordan

Open Race - 1 Derek Sheils; 2 Michael Dunlop; 3 Michael Sweeney; 4 Derek McGee; 5 Adam McLean; 6 James Cowton

Moto3/125cc race - 1 Derek McGee; 2 Adam McLean; 3 Paul Robinson; 4 Paul Jordan; 5 Joe Loughlin; 6 Christopher Eder

Supersport race two - 1 James Cowton; 2 Adam McLean; 3 Derek Sheils; 4 Michael Dunlop; 5 Derek McGee; 6 William Dunlop