Armoy Road Races: Michael Dunlop smashes lap record and claims 25th victory in Supersport opener

The Ballymoney man, back at his home race after withdrawing from the event last year, grabbed the lead on the opening lap after starting from pole.

Davey Todd, who won both Supersport races at Armoy last July, made a flying start to lead from the front row on the Milenco by Padgett’s Honda but Dunlop was narrowly ahead at the end of the first lap on his MD Racing Yamaha, with Mike Browne a close third (Burrows Engineering/RK Racing Yamaha).

Dunlop had pulled a gap of half-a-second over Todd at the end of lap two and extended his advantage further on the next lap, pulling ahead by 1.1s.

Bradford’s Dean Harrison, back at Armoy for the first time since 2015, was into third on the BPE by Russell Racing Yamaha ahead of Browne.

Dunlop, though, was setting a blistering pace and the 25-time Isle of Man TT winner set a new lap record on the fifth lap with a speed of 105.179mph, opening a comfortable gap of over two seconds.

He went on to wrap up victory in the seven-lap race by 2.654s from Todd, who was around four seconds clear of Harrison in third.

The top three were all under the previous lap record of 104.290mph which was set by the late William Dunlop in 2015.

Browne prevailed in a battle with Adam McLean (J McC Roofing Racing Yamaha) for fourth with Dominic Herbertson completing the top six on the Cowton Kawasaki.

Ballymoney rider Darryl Tweed was seventh on the Parker Transport Yamaha ahead of Yorkshireman Joey Thompson (TH Racing Honda).

Earlier, Tweed won the Lightweight Supersport race on the M&D Racing Kawasaki by almost 11 seconds from Aidan Cleary, while Newcastle-Upon-Tyne’s Herbertson was victorious in the concurrently run Post Classic Twinshock race on the Davies Motorsport Yamaha TX500 from Andy Hornby (Triumph Trident 750) and Paul Jordan (Davies Motorsport Yamaha TX500).