Michael and William Dunlop dominated on home territory at the Armoy road races on Saturday as the pair completed a clean sweep of the Open, Grand Final and Supersport races.

Michael Dunlop rattled off a double in the Superbike class, with William taking Chris Dowd’s Yamaha R6 to a narrow victory over his younger brother in a red-hot 600cc showdown in the scorching summer sunshine at the ‘Race of Legends’ as lap records tumbled.

In the blue riband Grand Final, a mistake on the opening lap of the race cost Tyco Suzuki’s Guy Martin dear as he dropped to last place in the opening group.

Dublin’s Derek Sheils was the early pacesetter from pole man Dunlop on his Honda Fireblade, with William Dunlop third on the Milwaukee Yamaha R1.

By the time they reached the village section of the three-mile Armoy circuit on lap two Michael had taken over, with Sheils coming under pressure from William Dunlop.

William moved into second place but was unable to threaten Michael for the lead throughout the eight-lap finale, with victory going to the seven-time Isle of Man TT winner by seven seconds.

Dunlop also set a new outright lap record at Armoy on his way to victory at 106.015mph.

Sheils held on for third with Martin blasting through the pack to claim fourth ahead of Jamie Hamilton ad Derek McGee.

Manx rider Conor Cummins was a retirement on the Milwaukee Yamaha.


Dunlop had earlier won the 201-1010cc Open race, reeling in initial leader Martin before taking over at half-distance and closing out a comfortable victory.

Sheils finished on the final podium place ahead of William Dunlop and his Yamaha team-mate Conor Cummins.

Suzuki star Martin made a lightning-fast start in the seven-lap Supersport race to lead Hamilton and William and Michael Dunlop.

By the third lap, William had swooped past the Lincolnshire rider to lead with Michael into third position ahead of Hamilton.

Dunlop began to open a slight advantage over Martin and by the time Michael finally passed the Suzuki rider to take second, the 24-year-old had left himself too much work to do to pip his brother.

However, he did have the consolation of setting a new lap record on the final lap as William held on to win on Chris Dowd’s Yamaha R6 by 0.6s. Martin finished third followed by Hamilton and McGee.

Hamilton won the Supertwin race on the Vauxhall KMR Kawasaki after a race-long duel with circuit newcomer Jeremy McWilliams, who pushed the Ballyclare man all the way to the flag.

Christian Elkin was victorious in the 125cc race on his Moto3 machine from Sam Dunlop and Sam Wilson, while William Dunlop took the honours in the 250cc race over Wilson and Michael Sweeney.

Connor Behan claimed the Senior Support spoils from Mark Hanna and Shane Egan, with Hanna the winner of the Junior Support class from Behan as Egan again claimed the final spot on the rostrum.

The organisers ran a superb meeting and despite being forced to hold four practice sessions at the start of the meeting after rain interrupted proceedings on Friday, the event had been completed in its entirety around 5.30pm.


Kyle White
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