Derek Sheils clinches Irish Superbike title after double at Munster 100

Derek Sheils warmed up for the Ulster Grand Prix with a Superbike double at the Munster 100 Road Races on Sunday to clinch the Irish Superbike title.
By Kyle White
Published 4th Aug 2019, 16:54 BST
Derek Sheils (centre) celebrates victory in the Grand Final at the Munster 100 with runner-up Michael Sweeney (right) and Ray Casey. Picture: Stephen Davison/Pacemaker Press.Derek Sheils (centre) celebrates victory in the Grand Final at the Munster 100 with runner-up Michael Sweeney (right) and Ray Casey. Picture: Stephen Davison/Pacemaker Press.
Derek Sheils (centre) celebrates victory in the Grand Final at the Munster 100 with runner-up Michael Sweeney (right) and Ray Casey. Picture: Stephen Davison/Pacemaker Press.

The event returned to Glanmire in Co Cork for the first time since 2013 and although wet weather threatened to put a dampener on the event, conditions improved as the day wore on.

The feature Grand Final was successfully completed at the second attempt after rain thwarted the initial race.

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Sheils won the headline event of the day on the Burrows Engineering/RK Racing Suzuki after Skerries man Michael Sweeney led the way in the early stages on the MJR BMW.

Derek Sheils (Burrows Engineering/RK Racing Suzuki) leads Michael Sweeney (MJR BMW) at the Munster 100 Road Races on Sunday. Picture: Stephen Davison/Pacemaker Press.Derek Sheils (Burrows Engineering/RK Racing Suzuki) leads Michael Sweeney (MJR BMW) at the Munster 100 Road Races on Sunday. Picture: Stephen Davison/Pacemaker Press.
Derek Sheils (Burrows Engineering/RK Racing Suzuki) leads Michael Sweeney (MJR BMW) at the Munster 100 Road Races on Sunday. Picture: Stephen Davison/Pacemaker Press.

Once Sheils hit the front, he managed to open a slight gap but Sweeney was always poised to pounce on any mistakes by his fellow southern Irish rider.

Sheils, though, held firm and completed his double on the GSX-R1000, crossing the line 1.7 seconds ahead of Sweeney, with Ray Casey rounding out the top three on his 600.

The Dublin rider was crowned Irish Superbike champion after securing the Ulster crown at Armoy.

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Derek Wilson, Stephen Casey and Thomas Maxwell were the top six.

Earlier, Sheils had a straightforward run to victory in the Open race, hitting the front from the off and gradually pulling away from Sweeney.

He won with 4.1 seconds in hand from Sweeney, with Maxwell a long way behind in third ahead of Raymond Casey and Stephen Casey.

Sweeney won the Supersport race on his Yamaha R6 after passing Stephen Casey to take over, going on to win by more than nine seconds at the finish. Paul Fallon finished third, a huge 32 seconds behind Sweeney.

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Sheils was a non-starter in the race, while Darryl Tweed – who was leading on the first lap – was a retirement. Raymond Casey also had a DNF.

In the Supertwin race, Sweeney took the spoils to clinch a double by 9.6 seconds ahead of Ballymoney man Tweed, with Vinny Brennan in third.

Dermot Cleary won the Senior Support race from Tommy Henry, while Brennan dominated the Junior Support race to win by 3.6 seconds from John Ella.

Ed Manly was victorious in the Junior Classic race from Barry Davidson, while the Senior Classic victory went to Richard Ford.

After earlier rain in the day, the organisers pressed ahead with the race programme when conditions improved and to their credit completed the schedule shortly before 2.30pm.