Cookstown 100: Michael Sweeney secures a hat-trick of wins at Irish national road race
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Michael Sweeney won both Open races and the Supertwins event at the Orritor circuit
Michael Sweeney secured a hat-trick of wins at the Cookstown 100 road races on Saturday, with Adam McLean and Mike Browne also taking victories.
Sweeney won the restarted six-lap Open race by 3.5 seconds from Adam McLean, with Thomas Maxwell third.
The feature Cookstown race was also red-flagged and reduced to five laps with Skerries rider Sweeney taking the win on his MJR BMW ahead of Maxwell.
Sweeney also won the Supertwins race but McLean was the Supersport victor.
Browne was a comfortable winner of the 125cc/Moto3 class over the 2.1-mile Orritor circuit, enjoying a 21-seconds winning margin over Eoin O Siochru, with Dungannon's Nigel Moore third.
The Supertwins event had to be re-started after McAdoo Kawasaki Racing pilot McLean slipped off unhurt while in the lead.
Sweeney's winning margin over runner-up Dominic Herbertson was 4.8 seconds, with Paul Williams third.
Adam McLean won the Supersport race at Cookstown by six seconds
Earlier in the day, McLean won the Supersport class for the fifth time in six years and the third year in a row, the Tobermore man heading Browne by four seconds at the chequered flag, with Paul Jordan third, then Sweeney, Herbertson and Darryl Tweed making up the top six.
Browne and Jordan were fallers in the first running of the Open race and although they escaped serious injury, neither rider took their place on the grid for the re-start because of the incident.
Sweeney led from start to finish in that race and then the feature event was stopped when McLean came off for the second time in the day at Braeside, bringing out the red flags again.
Sweeney completed his treble in the five-lap restart to make it a memorable day for the Republic of Ireland rider.
Guy Martin retired in the senior 1000 classics after setting the fastest qualifying speed in the category in practice.
The Cookstown 100 was celebrating its centenary this year and was back in its traditional April date after being staged in September in both of the last two years because of issues surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic.