How Mike Browne shrugged off horror Cookstown 100 crash to clinch two Irish titles and maiden Manx Grand Prix victory in four months

The Cork man broke both ankles in the crash which happened at the beginning of the opening Superbike race but shocking footage of the incident later showed that he had got off lightly. Browne was sent sprawling after contact with Michael Sweeney and was struck by Paul Jordan who had no chance of taking evasive action.

Ruled out of the Tandragee 100 and North West 200 and facing the prospect of also missing the Isle of Man TT – back on the calendar for the first time since 2019 – a dejected Browne was left licking his wounds in his hospital bed.

Yet he refused to accept his fate and despite being barely able to walk, Browne boarded the ferry and made the short sailing across the Irish Sea to try his luck at the TT. It proved a justified moment of madness.

Against the odds, the Burrows Engineering/RK Racing rider lapped at 126.679mph in the Senior on the Suzuki GSX-R1000 and clinched his best result of ninth in the second Supersport race, clocking 123.4mph. This was only Browne’s second appearance at the TT and his gutsy performance filled the Ulster team with optimism for what might be possible in 2023 and served as a springboard for the remainder of the season, with Browne putting the April gloom of his Cookstown crash behind him and embracing a busy summer of national road races to deliver the Irish Supersport and Moto3 titles for John Burrows’ Dungannon-based team.

“After getting a raw deal with everything being cancelled because of Covid when I joined the team we were looking forward to the TT this year and then bang – disaster at the Cookstown 100,” Browne said.

“We were still unsure if I’d be able to ride even when I was going over there on the boat and I kind of told John [Burrows] that I would try but I was sweating a bit thinking I wouldn’t be able to do it.

“But he stood by me and said the bikes were there if I wanted to give it a shot. Then as the week went on I kind of got used to the pain and once we were there we totally changed our attitude and decided to get the laps in,” he added.

“In the end we got a few nice results from the TT and it felt promising coming away from there because we were all surprised at what we could do with two broken ankles, so we can definitely be better next year.”

Browne gave the Kells meeting a miss immediately after the TT to allow his body some respite after a punishing fortnight on the Island but a Supersport and Moto3 double at the Skerries 100 in early July was the perfect pick-me-up.

“I sat out Kells and to be honest I went a bit backwards after the TT just with all of the riding involved over there. When I got home I just needed a break to give the body a chance and Kells was a bit too soon,” Browne said.

“We went to Skerries after that and got a win on the 600 and Moto3 bikes. We just worked it week by week really this year and John would give me a ring after each weekend to see if we’d go again the next weekend. The plan was to get the TT done and then just go from there but we ended up being in the running for some championships and we basically did them all after Skerries.

“I know there weren’t many of us running at the front at the national road races but ‘Micko’ [Michael Sweeney] said he was going faster than he ever did before with the lap times when he was racing against [Derek] Sheils and [Derek] McGee before. So that was kind of a confidence boost for me because I knew that all the lads weren’t there but the lap times between the two of us were good.”

Browne’s unexpected success in a dramatic Manx Grand Prix Lightweight race on the LayLaw Racing TZ250 Yamaha in August made the crushing downer of his untimely crash at the Cookstown 100 nothing more than an unpleasant memory. It also fuelled his hunger to repeat the feat again in the future on a much bigger stage at the TT.

He won the race when leader James Hind broke down on the second and last lap after Browne ran into issues with his own machine, which he cajoled over the Mountain and back down into Douglas for an unanticipated victory.

“I was going there completely green because I knew absolutely nothing about two-strokes and to be fair it was a real eye-opener riding a two-stroke around there,” Browne said.

“But I couldn’t have been in better hands with Gerry [Lawlor, team owner] and Eddie [Laycock] because Eddie is a genius with those two-strokes.

“I was ready to go straight on coming up the return road and I was devastated because I thought the whole race had gone. I thought there was no way I was on the podium and I stopped, and Paul Phillips told me I’d won. I just thought ‘how the f*** have I won this race’.”

From two broken ankles to two Irish titles and a maiden Manx Grand Prix win in four months. Undoubtely there is more to come from Mike Browne in 2023.