Armoy Road Races: Michael Dunlop wins 'Race of Legends' Superbike finale for 10th time

The home favourite swept aside his rivals in a wet feature race at the Co Antrim venue on Saturday to complete a five-timer after winning every race he started, including both Supersport events, the Supertwin race and both Superbike encounters.

Dunlop, the most successful rider ever at Armoy, has now won a total of 29 races around the three-mile course.

The 34-year-old took the lead off the line into the first chicane ahead of Todd in the headline race, which was cut to six laps because of inclement weather.

At the end of the first lap, Dunlop already had a lead of 6.4s over Mike Browne (Burrows Engineering/RK Racing BMW) with Derek Sheils in third a further two seconds down on his Roadhouse Macau BMW, narrowly ahead of 2022 winner Todd.

Dunlop stretched his advantage to 11.4s over Browne after the second lap, when he set the fastest speed of the race at 98.438mph.

Sheils remained third but Todd dropped a place to fifth as Dean Harrison moved into fourth on the BPE by Russell Racing Yamaha R6.

The rain was beginning to become heavier as the race progressed but Dunlop was disappearing into the distance, extending his lead to 16.5s after four laps over Browne.

Sheils was 3.1s further behind in third but was comfortably clear of Harrison by 12 seconds.

Todd was now in seventh place behind Mike Norbury and Phil Crowe.

Dunlop could afford to roll off on the sixth and last lap as he won the ‘Race of Legends’ emphatically for the 10th time by 16.904s from Browne.

Sheils was third, 10.14s down on Browne, with Harrison in fourth.

Norbury (Kawasaki 600) and Crowe (BMW) completed the top six with Todd coming home in seventh position.

Armoy was the final Irish road race of 2023 after many races were cancelled this year – including every road race and short circuit meeting in the Republic of Ireland – due to issues around obtaining insurance.