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Michael Dunlop made a winning return from injury with victory in the Open Superbike race at Armoy on Saturday.

Despite hobbling around the paddock on crutches and requiring steps to climb onto his Tyco BMW Superbike, the Ballymoney man was a dominant winner as he quickly battled his way through to the front.

The 30-year-old sustained injuries including a reported broken pelvis and hip joint in a crash two weeks ago at the Southern 100 on the Isle of Man.

Dunlop, who missed the race last year, qualified fourth fastest on his Superbike and started the race from the second row of the grid, but he swooped for third past Thomas Maxwell on the opening lap in Armoy village.

He then set about chasing after race leaders Derek Sheils and Derek McGee and soon passed both to take over, opening a slender advantage of 0.1 seconds after the second lap from McGee, with Sheils dropping to third.

Sheils picked moved past McGee into second place on the next lap, but Dunlop gradually pulled away from the Burrows Engineering/RK Racing Suzuki rider.

At the end of the fifth lap, he led by 2.5 seconds from Sheils, with McGee and Michael Sweeney further back as they fought it out for third.

There was no catching Dunlop though, who extended his lead to 3.4 seconds on the sixth and penultimate lap.

He closed out a popular victory at his home race by 4.4 seconds from Sheils, with Sweeney taking third ahead of McGee. Maxwell and Dominic Herbertson completed the top six.

Earlier, McGee was a comfortable winner of the Supersport race. He led all the way on his B&W Diamond Cutting Kawasaki to win by 5.3 seconds from Sweeney, with Sheils filling out the rostrum.

Mullingar man McGee also won the Supersport race on Friday evening when he edged out Paul Jordan by only 0.012 seconds for the win.

Magherafelt rider Jordan decided to sit out Saturday’s races at Armoy after hurting himself following a collision with McGee after the Supersport race had ended on Friday.

Michael Dunlop retired from the race after he was initially unable to get his MD Racing Honda off the line.

McGee also won the Moto3/125GP race by a long way on his Faraldo Racing Honda, giving him a treble at the event so far.

Gary Dunlop, who started at the rear of the grid after missing the qualifying session on Friday, came through to take second place on corrected time, 19.5 seconds down on McGee. Melissa Kennedy completed the top three.

Vinny Brennan dominated the Junior Support race to win from Dominic Cottrell and impressive newcomer Ryan Fenton from Ballymoney.

Barry Davidson was a narrow winner in the Junior Classic race, sealing victory by half-a-second from Ed Manly.