Practice for the AXA Bikecare Skerries 100 road races in north county Dublin was held under controlled conditions on Friday due to wet roads.

Ballymoney’s William Dunlop is back in action at the event after breaking his leg in a crash in the Senior race at the Isle of Man TT.

The Tyco Suzuki rider only has the GSX-R600 Supersport machine at Skerries this weekend but will be reunited with the TAS Racing Superbike for next week’s Southern 100.

Dunlop, though, set his fastest ever lap at Skerries in the Supersport class last year and could be an outsider for a rostrum finish in the Open race on Saturday.

He won the Supersport race in 2013 by half-a-second from brother Michael, who is absent from the Irish road race after travelling to Germany to collect the BMW S1000RR Superbike he will ride at the Southern 100 and Ulster Grand Prix at Dundrod.

Derek Sheils will be a strong contender for victory in front of his home fans on Chris Dowd’s MSS Kawasaki ZX-10R, with Jamie Hamilton on

Wilson Craig’s Honda machines, newcomer Dan Kneen (Cookstown B.E. Racing), Mullingar’s Derek McGee, Skerries man Michael Sweeney and the evergreen Davy Morgan among the key contenders in the Open and Grand Final races.

Roads close on Saturday morning at 9am sharp, with the Open race scheduled to get the programme underway shortly afterwards.




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