Derek Sheils secured his fifth consecutive victory on the Cookstown/Burrows Engineering Racing Suzuki at the KDM Hire Cookstown 100 yesterday.
The Dublin rider won the Royal Hotel Open A race at the County Tyrone meeting as the new Irish road racing season roared into life at the Orritor course.
Sheils, who started from the second group after qualifying in 12th place following an engine problem with the Suzuki GSX-R1000 on Friday, came through to secure victory by 4.966 seconds on corrected time from Tyco BMW rider Michael Dunlop. Sheils is now unbeaten on the 1000cc machine at the event since 2015.
He had earlier finished in fourth place in the Braeside Bar Supersport Invitation race after qualifying on pole position. Sheils then returned to the rostrum in the Mid-Ulster District Council Supersport race, taking third place.
Sheils missed the opportunity to challenge for a double in the Superbike class in the KDM Hire Cookstown 100 race. The organisers abandoned the meeting with time running out in the wake of some poor weather and a spate of accidents, although fortunately no serious injuries were reported.
“I’d have preferred to start in the front group on an even keel but it didn’t work out like that and I had to make do as best I could. I started from the second wave and got away but I think the other riders ahead of me in the first group had a clear run as well, so in my mind it was a pretty even race anyway," said Sheils.
“Unfortunately, the Cookstown 100 race didn’t go ahead but it was a smart decision on behalf of the organisers. I’d have liked to have won the race to have sealed the deal but who knows how it would have went because there were a lot of fast lads out there wanting to win too.
"But it’s a good start to the season and we’ll take that after Friday, when we had an engine problem with the big bike in practice. Tandragee is up next and we’ll be going there to try and win races, like we do everywhere.”