Derek Sheils (Cookstown BE Suzuki) continued his terrific start to the Irish road racing season with a ‘big bike’ double at the KDM Hire Cookstown 100, a meeting made difficult for organisers by a spate of red flags throughout the day with thankfully no serious injuries.

However the ride of the meeting came from 21-year old Adam McLean who scored his debut win in the Supersport class on his MSS Kawasaki, leading from start to finish.

McLean from nearby Tobermore was sensational, thrilling the huge crowd as he held off the strong challenges of Derek McGee and James Cowton to score a memorable victory, half a second covering the flying trio as they took the chequered flag – breaking the stranglehold on the class of McGee and William Dunlop.

Sheils came from the second group to claim fourth on corrected time ahead of Paul Jordan, Michael Sweeney and Guy Martin riding the Wilson Craig Honda.

Pole position man and Friday evening non-championship Supersport winner, Dunlop, was three seconds behind in fourth position.

The Open ‘A’ race was stopped when Cowton tipped off the McAdoo Kawasaki, uninjured and on the five lap re-start McGee headed the freight train at the end of the first lap.

Sheils made his move to the front on lap two and gradually opened a gap on the Dubliner taking the chequered flag two and a half seconds ahead of McGee, who had the Temple Golf Club R1 Yamaha of Dunlop and the MJR BMW of Michael Sweeney breathing down his neck at the finish line.

Martin coming from the front row of the second group after qualifying came through to claim fifth on corrected time, over ten seconds down on Sweeney.

The 8-lap feature KDM Hire Cookstown 100 race was a demonstration run for the Cookstown BE rider as he led from start to finish lapping within half a second of Michael Dunlop’s 2013 outright lap record to win by over eleven seconds from McGee, who lost time by running wide at one stage.

Sweeney got the better of Dunlop on the final lap to claim a terrific third position, with Cowton, none the worse for his earlier spill, fifth on his 600cc McAdoo Kawasaki.

Newcomer Alistair Kirk, coming through from the second group of competitors, was a fine sixth on corrected time edging the more experienced Brian McCormick by a quarter of a second.

McGee looked to have the Supertwin five lapper in his grasp, but Cowton on his local sponsors Kawasaki wasn’t having it and with the fastest lap on his last lap edged past the Mullingar rider to win by half a second and a boost for the McAdoo Team, whose base is within a stones throw of the Orritor Circuit. McLean, Sweeney, Sheils and Paul Jordan completed the top six.

The only lap record to fall on the day was the Junior Support where Joseph Loughlin lowered the old record by a massive 2.8seconds on his way to a thirteen second victory over Oisin Watson after just four laps.

Loughlin made it a Support double with a five second win of the Senior class from Adam Lyon and David Howard.

Sam Wilson scored a seven second victory in the Moto3/125GP race on his Joey’s Bar Moto3 Honda, clear of Paul Robinson on a similar machine with Justin Waring on his Kalex KTM in third. Nigel Moore was the first two-stroke home in fourth.

Near neighbours Darryl Tweed and Seamus Elliott were 1-2 in the Lightweight Supersport just half a second apart while in the classic races there were class wins for Robert McCrum (1000), Barry Davidson (500 and 350) ad Richard Ford (250).

Such is the short, narrow nature of the Orritor Circuit that only 21 competitors, starting in three groups of seven are permitted to start each race, resulting in a mammoth 19-race programme with ‘B’ races for all the major classes.

Dan Cooper on his Cookstown debut won the feature ‘B’ Richard Wilson the Open ‘B’ Brad Vicars Supersport ‘B’ Paul Gartland Supertwin ‘B’ R.J.Woolsey coming from the second group to win Junior Support ‘B’ and Alan Johnston Senior Support ‘B’.

Cooper was also the recipient of the Trevor Ferguson Memorial Trophy for his efforts as a Newcomer.

Clerk of the Course Francis Everard and Club official Kenny Loughrin summed the day by saying, “Today was one of the hardest for a CoC with many races interrupted by red flags, a shower of rain and unforeseen incidents. However we got all races run thanks to the support of competitors, paying spectators, residents, club members, land owners, medical personnel and sponsors.”