Derek Sheils claimed his second victory of the 2018 Irish road racing season on the Cookstown/Burrows Engineering Racing Suzuki at Saturday’s 58^th Around A Pound Tandragee 100 in County Armagh.

Sheils, who started from pole on the GSX-R1000, won a thrilling Open Superbike race by 0.8 seconds from Manx rider Dan Kneen, with Derek McGee a close third.

In the feature Tandragee 100 Superbike race, Sheils led on the opening laps before slipping back slightly into third position. A blistering race unfolded in the warm sunshine around the challenging 5.3-mile course and in the end it was Kneen who narrowly came out on top on the factory-supported Tyco BMW, with Dubliner Sheils finishing on the podium in third behind McGee.

The trio were covered by only half-a-second and Derek achieved his personal best lap time at Tandragee with an average speed of 108.896mph on the sixth and final lap.

Davey Todd, making his debut at the event, enjoyed a fine start to the meeting with an impressive ride to seventh place in the Open Superbike race on the Superstock-spec Suzuki GSX-R100, lapping at 105.409mph.

Unfortunately, Davey was a non-starter in the Supersport 600 race as the Burrows Engineering Racing Honda went off a cylinder. The young Saltburn-by-the-Sea rider had high expectations for the Supertwins race after qualifying third quickest. Davey was holding a comfortable third place when his 650cc Kawasaki developed a problem, ruling him out on lap four. 

He was eager to make amends in the Tandragee 100 Superbike race and the 22-year-old made a strong start. He was battling with William Dunlop for fifth place when the pair had a coming together at Bell’s crossroads on the second lap. Both riders crashed out and escaped relatively unhurt.

The Cookstown/Burrows Engineering Racing team is now looking ahead to the International North West 200, where practice gets underway on Tuesday, May 15.

Team Principal – John Burrows:

“As a team, we were pleased that Derek won the first Superbike race and had a strong podium in the feature Tandragee 100 race, when he set his personal best time. It shows that the old Suzuki GSX-R1000 is still capable of doing a good job and Derek is on top of his game. There was nothing in it in the big race of the day when Derek finished third behind Dan Kneen and Derek McGee so it was another positive day for him and the team. 

“Davey improved his lap time by five seconds from practice as he finished in a solid seventh place in the first Superbike race. I was happy with that performance and there is much more to come from him. Sadly, Davey and William Dunlop had a coming together in the feature Superbike race, which was unfortunate. 

“Davey also had bad luck in the Supersport race. We had an engine problem on Friday night that we thought we had cured but he was unable to start the race. He was lying third in the Supertwins race when the bike stopped and we think it was down to an electrical fault. Hopefully, that is all of Davey’s bad luck out of the way.” 

Derek Sheils:

“It was a good day and the first race was great. We managed to pick up another win and it would’ve been nice to win the big Superbike race later, but you can’t win them all. I made a good start and led for a few laps and then Derek McGee came past me on the fourth lap. I took a couple of lunges at him and I was up alongside him a few times, but I just wasn’t able to quite go for it. Dan Kneen then got past me and then everyone was really defending their lines. There was no real way to try and make a safe pass without doing a crazy manoeuvre, so we finished third but we were right there at the end.

“I went about a second quicker than I ever lapped Tandragee so it was a satisfying race and I’m happy enough. We also qualified on pole for the Supersport race and fifth place wasn’t what I’d hoped for, but it wasn’t the worst result either on the Yamaha.”

Davey Todd:

“I said to John that I think we have had all of our bad luck for the year in one day – at least I hope so anyway! We started the day off well in the first Superbike race and I held fifth for a long time and had a good battle with William Dunlop and Michael Sweeney. To end up seventh was not a bad result and I was pretty pleased with that. I was looking forward to progressing further as the day went on and I was beginning to learn the track more and more. 

“Unfortunately, I didn’t really get the chance to do that and it was just down to bad luck really. We had a problem with the 600 Honda and then we stopped on the Supertwin when I was in third place. I was feeling comfortable so I was gutted that the bike stopped and we’re not quite sure what went wrong with it.

“With the 600 Honda, I had a problem on Friday and the guys were flat-out working on it to get the bike ready for the race. They worked so hard but unfortunately it still wasn’t right and we had some issues, so it wasn’t worth going out there and risking it when the bike just wasn’t running quite right. 

“We made a few changes to the Suzuki for the main race but I think we may have gone the wrong way slightly. I made a good start and then I had a coming together with William Dunlop into the last corner. 

“That’s part of racing and we’ll be back to fight another day. I’m really looking forward to getting out now at the North West 200.” 

The International North West 200 takes place from May 15-19.

Write up courtesy of Burrows Engineering. 

Images courtesey of Pacemaker Press