Derek Shiels scored top qualifying honours as the 2023 Cookstown 100 got underway, the eight-time winner getting the better of Michael Dunlop at Orritor.

Following a winter of much speculation and concern about whether we would see any racing this year in Northern Ireland, the Cookstown 100 kicked off as planned as the road racing season gathers momentum.

In almost perfect conditions, Shiels put his Roadhouse Macau BMW S1000RR on the front of the grid for Saturday's race with a lap time of 1min 23.284s.

Michael Dunlop riding his Hawk racing Honda on the roads for the first time joins Sheils on the front row of the grid after setting a time of just under a second behind Sheils.

Skerries man Michael Sweeney last years man of the meeting was third fastest on board the MJR BMW S100RR Corks Mike Brown also on BMW machinery of Burrows Engineering/RK Racing.

Mike Browne set the pace in the Supersport 600 class on his Burrows Engineering/RK Racing Yamaha, while Michael Sweeney - also on a Yamaha - will start along side of him at the front of the grid. TT Supersport favourite Dunlop gets underway on the second row on his MD Racing Yamaha R6.

Mike Browne dominated the Moto3 class with a lap time over four seconds quicker than the rest of the field.

Dunlop took pole on the McAdoo Racing Kawasaki Supertwin 

Anthony O’Carroll and Aaron Spence were fastest in the Senior and Junior Support classes respectively.

The Lightweight Supersport times were led by Tweed on the M&D Racing Kawasaki.

Barry Davison topped the Classic 250 and 350 times and the Supersport 300 leaderboard.