Derek Sheils secured his fifth consecutive victory on the Cookstown/Burrows Engineering Racing Suzuki at the KDM Hire Cookstown 100 on Saturday.

The Dublin rider won the Royal Hotel Open A race at the County Tyrone meeting as the new Irish road racing season roared into life at the Orritor course in County Tyrone.

Sheils, who started from the second group after qualifying in 12^th place following an engine problem with the Suzuki GSX-R1000 on Friday, came through to secure victory by 4.966 seconds on corrected time from Tyco BMW rider Michael Dunlop. Sheils is now unbeaten on the 1000cc machine at the event since 2015.

He had earlier finished in fourth place in the Braeside Bar Supersport Invitation race after qualifying on pole position. Sheils then returned to the rostrum in the Mid Ulster District Council Supersport race, taking third place.

Unfortunately, Derek missed the opportunity to challenge for a double in the Superbike class in the KDM Hire Cookstown 100 race. The organisers abandoned the meeting with time running out in the wake of some poor weather and a spate of accidents, although fortunately no serious injuries were reported. 

New signing Davey Todd impressed on his Cookstown debut, finishing eighth in the Open A race and seventh in the Supersport Invitation race. The 22-year-old, from Saltburn-by-the-Sea, was 10^th in the Supersport A race and rounded off the day with a fantastic third place in the Supertwins event, losing out on the runner-up spot by a few hundredths of a second.

Team Principal – John Burrows:

“I feel we had a good day as a team after a difficult practice. Derek’s motor went on the first lap of qualifying on the Suzuki GSX-R1000 and then he jumped on his 600 and put in a qualifying time. That left Derek on the back foot because he had to start from 12^th place on the second row of the second group. It was going to be difficult if he didn’t get the hole-shot and have some clear track in front of him, but luckily he made a good start and straight away he built a lead on corrected time. He managed to extend his lead to close to five seconds by the finish, so that’s a massive positive for the team after what happened on Friday. It shows how good Derek is but also how, as a team, we worked together and turned it around. 

“Davey was a newcomer at Cookstown and I was very pleased with his performance. He’s a very talented lad and he showed that because he qualified 18^th on the Suzuki GSX-R1000 but came through to gain ten places in the race, taking a strong eighth position. His lap times weren’t far away from the riders at the front and his times were also very strong on the 600 Honda. We made a wrong tyre choice for the Supertwins race and he was spinning up coming out of the road ends, but Davey still managed to get onto the podium in third. It was good to come away today with Derek winning the Open race and Davey getting his first podium for the team, so from my point of view I’m delighted with how it went.

“Unfortunately, it was a trying day for the organisers with the weather and a number of incidents, but they made the right decision to call it off at the end.” 

Derek Sheils:

“I’d have preferred to start in the front group on an even keel but it didn’t work out like that and I had to make do as best I could. I started from the second wave and got away but I think the other riders ahead of me in the first group had a clear run as well, so in my mind it was a pretty even race anyway.

“Unfortunately, the Cookstown 100 race didn’t go ahead but it was a smart decision on behalf of the organisers. I’d have liked to have won the race to have sealed the deal but who knows how it would have went because there were a lot of fast lads out there wanting to win too. But it’s a good start to the season and we’ll take that after Friday, when we had an engine problem with the big bike in practice. Tandragee is up next and we’ll be going there to try and win races, like we do everywhere.”

Davey Todd:

“I’m a little bit disappointed in myself because I couldn’t quite get my head around the circuit. There is so little time in qualifying but I was improving with each race today and getting up to speed. It wasn’t a bad performance by any stretch but I’m definitely looking to build on that and improve next time out. The team performed absolutely amazing and the bikes were spot on, so I couldn’t have asked for any more from the guys.

“Tandragee is next and I’ll be a newcomer there as well but fortunately I have people around me who know their way around the course and I am getting tips and advice from them. Hopefully we can give another good account of ourselves and just keep making progress and continuing to learn the bikes.”

 The Around-A-Pound Tandragee 100 takes place from May 4-5.

Image provided by Pacemaker Press