Armoy road races: Dunlop takes win double in Supersport and Lightweight Supersport events
- Published
Michael Dunlop has taken wins in the Supersport 600 and Lightweight Supersport classes on the opening night of competition at the Armoy road races.
The Lightweight Supersport event was red-flagged after one lap with Dunlop leading from Mullingar's Derek McGee.
McGee led after lap one of the re-started race, but Dunlop overhauled him on lap two on his Honda RS250 and won by 0.4 seconds after five laps.
Dunlop then edged Adam McLean by 1.7 seconds in a thrilling Supersport race.
Yamaha-mounted Dunlop was at the head of affairs after the opening circuit but it was McLean who was in front after laps two and three.
Dunlop made his move on lap four and held his advantage until the chequered flag to claim a notable double.
"People just think you rack up here and win but there are lots of boys riding hard," explained the Ballymoney man after his successes.
The 32-year-old will hope to make it nine consecutive wins in the feature 'Race of Legends' event when he competes in the feature race of the meeting on Saturday.
Seamus Elliott was 34 seconds behind McGee in completing the podium in the Lightweight Supersport outing while Yorkshire's Davey Todd was 7.5 seconds in arrears of McLean in making up the Supersport 600cc rostrum positions.
A high-quality Supersport field saw Mike Browne, Paul Jordan, Dominic Herbertson, Joe Loughlin and Joey Thompson complete the top eight in a race reduced from six laps to five.
Practices punctuated by red flag incidents
Derek Sheils led the times in the Superbike practice with Michael Sweeney second
Earlier in the day, practices for the event were punctuated by a number of red flag incidents, none of which are thought to be serious.
Republic of Ireland rider Derek Sheils topped the timesheets for the Open class on his Roadhouse Macau BMW at an average lap speed of 103.98mph.
He was followed on the leaderboard by compatriots Michael Sweeney (MJR BMW), Browne (Burrows Suzuki) and McGee on a Kawasaki.
Dunlop and Todd were next fastest in the 'big bike' class.
Dunlop was quickest in the Supersport practice after setting a speed of 101.561 on his final lap, with McGee and McLean next.
McGee was best of the Supertwins from McLean, Loughlin and Sweeney, with Browne leading the way from Melissa Kennedy in the Moto3/125cc class.
Dunlop led the Lightweight Supersport practice and Guy Martin the Senior Classic times.