Three head to Cookstown for opening road races of the season
There are just three pure road races left in Ireland – the Cookstown 100, the Northwest 200 and the Armoy Race of Legends – so it was fitting that just three local motorcycle races contested one of those events over the weekend.
The Irish National Road Racing season got underway at Cookstown, County Tyrone on Friday and Saturday last.
Three local riders, Darragh Crean, Andrew Murphy and Stephen Walsh all placed entries, across various classes, in the 18-race meeting.
Crean was on his second visit to the famous track but this time around it was part of a bigger plan to prepare for the British Superbike Championship and a crack at the Manx Grand Prix later in the year.
The Tralee man entered three categories, the Supertwin race on his DJ Racing/Elcofire Ireland Kawasaki ER 650, the main Supersport race and the Open race on his DJ Racing/Husqvarna Ireland Yamaha 600.
His best result was in the Supersport ‘Next Generation’ race where he finished fourth and missed out on a podium by just over half a second.
He was eighth in the Open race that featured far more powerful bikes from bigger classes.
Once the racing was completed at Cookstown on Saturday evening Crean and his D J Racing team headed straight for a ferry to England in readiness for the opening round of the British Superbike Championship at Oulton Park this weekend.
Murphy made his road racing debut at Cookstown. Like Crean, he has ambitions to contest the Manx Grand Prix in August and needs to get race finish signatures on his licence before his entry to that event will be accepted.
He contested both the Junior Support and Lightweight Supersport events on PCRS Bikesport Honda VFR 400.
His best result came in the Lightweight Supersport race where he finished seventh although he did manage a tenth-place finish in the Junior support race where he faced far more powerful bikes.
Walsh is a regular on the Irish road racing scene at the point of his career and one of the few dedicated enthusiasts who keep the Classic bike racing scene active in Ireland.
He finished tenth in the Junior Classic race on his Honda 350.
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