Armoy road races: Michael Dunlop takes five-timer and extends run of wins in feature race to nine
- Published
Michael Dunlop made it a double in the Supersport class with victory on Saturday
Michael Dunlop took an incredible five-timer at the Armoy road races and extended his run of consecutive wins in the feature 'Race of Legends' to nine.
Dunlop followed up his wins in the Supersport and Lightweight Supersport on Friday night by taking victory in the Open race, second Supersport event and final seven-lapper on Saturday.
The 32-year-old has now won 24 races at Armoy and set a new course lap record.
Joe Loughlin was taken to hospital by air ambulance after an incident.
The Castleblayney rider crashed at Church Bends during the warm-up lap for the feature race and was airlifted to hospital by the Air Ambulance.
With four wins already in the bag, Dunlop got the better of early leader Derek McGee in the 'Race of Legends' and ran out a comfortable 9.5-seconds winner over Wilson Craig Honda pilot Davey Todd, with McGee third, Michael Sweeney fourth, newcomer Phil Crowe fifth and Mike Browne sixth for Burrows Racing Suzuki.
Dunlop also overhauled McGee after a titanic struggle to take the Supersport race two honours by a slender margin of 0.028 seconds.
The Ballymoney rider then worked his way up from third place to take victory in the seven-lap Open event.
Dunlop set a new lap record to win by 7.6 seconds from Derek Sheils.
Dunlop's previous benchmark of 106.812mph for the three-mile circuit had survived since 2013 but now stands at 106.945mph, set on lap six.
Pole-sitter Sheils had set the fastest qualifying speed on his Roadhouse Macau BMW and the Republic of Ireland rider led after the first lap of Saturday's Open race.
Dunlop worked his way through the field on his Synetiq BMW by TAS Racing and had hit the front by lap four, gradually extending his advantage thereafter.
Mullingar's McGee occupied the final podium spot, with Sweeney, Todd and Market Rasen man Crowe completing the top six.
Michael Dunlop was taking part in his first road race since the 2019 Classic TT on the Isle of Man
Yamaha-mounted Dunlop found himself in fourth position after the opening lap of the Supersport class as he attempted to repeat his 600cc triumph on Friday night.
The 19-time winner moved up to second on lap two and hit the front on the third lap but McGee fought back to lead on lap six, before being overhauled by the Northern Irishman.
Tobermore's Adam McLean was third on the McAdoo Racing Kawasaki, followed by Todd, Dominic Herbertson and Joe Loughlin.
Dunlop also won the Lightweight Supersport class while having a rare outing on a Honda RS250 during Friday evening's racing.
Mike Browne was a comfortable winner of the Moto3/125cc race, with runner-up Melissa Kennedy almost 22 seconds in arrears and double Support race winner Eoin O'Siochru third.
McGee was the Supertwins victor, passing the chequered flag 7.6 seconds ahead of Paton rider Loughlin, with McLean in third place.
McGee recorded a new lap record for the class at 98.816mph.
Welsh veteran Ian Lougher won the Senior classic event, with Guy Martin runner-up.
You can watch highlights of the Armoy races on BBC One NI at 22:35 BST on Tuesday 3 August or watch again on BBC iPlayer.