Dunlop notches 100th road race win on home roads at Armoy meeting

William started the weekend with 98 Irish road race wins, and upped that to 99 on Friday evening when he won the first Supersport 600 race.

In virtual heatwave conditions, William beat his team mate Guy Martin by .8 of a second. Thats not to say he had things all his own way, as Martin pressured the Ballymoney man all the way. On the final circuit Dunlop set the fastest lap of the race, to pip the English rider. The top two had opened a slight gap over Keith Amor, who finished in third place, almost 4 seconds adrift.

We had only two local riders in this race. Randalstowns Stephen McIlvenna, better known as Jack, finished in 15th place, setting a fastest lap of 94.973mph. Jack was only .1 ahead of Kells man Dennis Booth at the finish. Den set a fastest lap of 95.238mph.

After early morning rain, the first race of Saturday came to the line. Right from the start Christian Elkin, from Randalstown, was in a class of his own. Pulling about 3 seconds a lap, he led comfortably at the end of the opening lap and pulled steadily away from the chasing pack. Paul Robinson sat in second place at the end of the first lap, just ahead of Paul Jordan, Neil Kernohan and Nigel Moore.

On the third lap Moore went into third place. Sadly, on the 4th lap the red flags came out, due to a crash involving Florencecourt’s Melissa Kennedy. The results were given from the end of the 3rd circuit. It gave a win, by 9.2 seconds, to Christian Elkin. Elki had the fastest lap of the race, with a speed of 87.771mph.

Ballymena man Neil Kernohan finished in 5th place. Never even having sat on a 125 before, he was only .07 behind Paul Jordan and would almost certainly have finished higher had the race run its full distance. His quickest lap was 85.844mph. Very impressive from a lad who is almost 6 foot tall. Thankfully Melissa, although knocked out, is fine.

Next up was the Junior Support race. It would have taken a pure disaster for Neil Kernohan to have lost the Loanends championship. The local man went into the final round with a 23 point advantage, so in theory would have needed a non finish, with William Hara winning the race, to have lost out on the title. Neither happened though. Right from the start, Sean Connolly was the leader. The Tramore man used the superior drive of his SV650 out of the slow corners to pull a lead on the first few laps.

Neil Kernohan set the fastest lap a number of times during the race, but just failed to grab the race win. He was just .03 of a second adrift at the finish. Armoy man Tommy Henry, who lives within earshot of the circuit, finished in third place, although he had slipped off the pace towards the finish. Neil set the fastest lap of the race, with a speed of 91.196mph. We had no other local riders competing.

Light rain soon turned to a downpour as the Supersport 600 riders prepared for their race. Wisely, Clerk of the Course Bill Kennedy decided to hold back the racing to see if the bad weather would pass.

After about an hour of a break the 600 riders were called to the line. Keith Amor was the early leader, showing total mastery of the soaking roads. By the third lap Guy Martin had moved into the lead, as Amor dropped down the order. One of the countrys brightest talents, Derek McGee, had started to pull back after a slow start. On the first lap he was outside the top eight, but quickly got on terms with the leaders. Martin extended his lead over team mate William Dunlop, until at the finish he had a 6.6 second cushion. A slowing Keith Amor just managed to keep McGee behind him on the run to the finish.

Christian Elkin was the best of our local riders. Winning Group B, Elki took 7th place overall. His fastest lap was 89.649mph. In 10th place, Jack McIlvenna lapped at 88.132mph.

Cullybackey’s Barry Davidson wrapped up the Irish and Ulster Junior Classic championship by taking a start to finish win in the 250/350 Classic race. Beaten only twice all year, Barry hit the front right from the start, moving away from Nigel Moore. Positions remained fairly static all race, as Davidson won by 3.3 seconds from Moore. Emyvale man Freddie Stewart was well off the pace in third. Barry set the fastest lap of the race with a speed of 78.018mph. Phil Shaw and Richard Ford had a good dice for the 250 class. Shaw just managed to grab the win, with Ford slipping back in the latter stages of the race. The top two had moved away from third man Gary Hutton.

On wet roads the first Open race came to the line. Guy Martin had a lightening start and looked like he was going to romp away with a race win. Setting the fastest lap, Michael Dunlop fought hard, but just hadn’t enough time to get on terms. I feel another lap would have told a tale. Dunlop was .8 back at the flag, with his elder brother William almost 8 seconds behind. We had, yet again, no locals in this race.

Marty Lyons was the early leader of the Senior Classic race. After a couple of laps, however, Robert McCrum forced Matilda, (his bike) ahead, and then the result was never in any doubt. Bert won by 2.8 seconds, with Lyons having to fight off a determined challenge by Richard Ford to keep third place. Fordy seemed to decide with a couple of laps to go that he wasn’t going to get the Hillsborough man, and settled for third, some 8 seconds back. Again, no local riders raced here.

One of the best races of the day was next. Seamus Elliott won the 250GP class. He made an early break and while he was about 11 seconds ahead at the line, the main focus of attention was on Neil Kernohan. Starting in Group B, over 15 seconds behind, the Ballymena rider quickly pulled through until he was battling with James Cowton, John Ella and Michael Sweeney on the road. Breaking away, he set off after Elliott, but couldn’t manage to catch the Ballymoney rider. Neil finished in second place, 11.9 seconds back, with a fastest lap of 88.3mph. James Cowton, in his first visit to Armoy, took third.

Keith Amor was the start to finish winner of the Supertwins race. On drying roads, the Scottish rider looked in top form, as he held off a late challenge from slow starting Derek McGee. McGee came to within 1.4 seconds of a race win, but still had to watch for James Cowton. Cowton set the fastest lap of the race, but just failed to take the runner up slot.

Ian Morrell was a comfortable winner if the SS400 race. He was never under any meaningful pressure as he took the win, by 4.3 seconds. Behind, however, it was much more fraught. Skerries man David Howard, Scot Vic Allan and Derek Wilkie were swapping paint for much of the race distance. Howy finished in second place, with Allan third, just .3 of a second back. Run concurrently, Aghadowey man Dave Walsh was the only Moto3 bike.

Neil Kernohan took his only win of the day in the Senior Support race. He completely blitzed the opposition on the Logan R6, winning by 26.5 seconds. Behind him there was another close fought battle going on. Brendan Merrigan, better known as Speedy, Timmy Elwood, in his first ever Armoy race, and Ballymoney rider Darryl Tweed in his first ever road race were wheel to wheel for much of the race. Elwood missed on second place by just .01 of a second as Speedy had a little more drive from Balleny Cross. Just .2 of a second separated the three of them. Again, Neil Kernohan was our only local representative. Taking the win, he set the fastest lap of the race, with a speed of 94.032mph. That was enough to give him the Support Man of the Meeting award.

Now held on completely dry roads, Guy Martin was the early leader of the feature race of the day, The Race of Legends. Guy Martin was the early leader, but was soon passed by Dan Kneen. Kneen, in his first visit to Armoy, enjoyed a short spell at the front, but was soon repassed by Martin. Michael Dunlop was, all the time, recovering from a slow start, and by now had moved through to second place, ahead of brother William. It was pretty much game over after that, as Dunlop passed Martin in the village, and then pulled away to take the race win by 3.1 seconds. Dan Kneen was a similar distance back in third place. It puts Michael onto 11 race wins at Armoy, joint top with Ryan Farquhar. Crumlin man Stephen Thompson was the only local man in this race. He took 9th place, with a fastest lap of 96.654mph.