Michael Dunlop seals Superbike and Supersport double at Walderstown Road Races | Ballymoney man targets treble in 'Race of South' finale

The 21-time Isle of Man TT winner was a surprise entry at the event as he returned to a national road race for the first time since claiming a five-timer and new outright lap record at Armoy last summer.

Dunlop narrowly held off Michael Sweeney (MJR BMW) to win the Open Superbike race on his Hawk Racing Buildbase Suzuki, with the pair separated by only 0.339s at the line.

Cork’s Mike Browne was a safe third on the Burrows Engineering/RK Racing Suzuki, two seconds down on the leaders, with local man Thomas Maxwell taking a distant fourth on his Kawasaki ZX10-R.

Mullingar’s Derek McGee was set to make his Irish road racing comeback at the Fore Club’s ‘Race of the South’ meeting but was forced out after testing positive for Covid-19 on Saturday.

In the Supersport 600 race, Ballymoney man Dunlop fought his way past early leader Browne to hit the front on his MD Racing Yamaha, with Sweeney in close contention.

Dunlop held a narrow advantage over Browne until he gradually began to build a cushion, increasing his lead to half-a-second at the end of the fifth lap and pulling ahead by 1.5s on the penultimate lap.

The 33-year-old closed out his second victory of the day by three seconds over Browne, with Sweeney 0.7s further back in third. Wexford’s Graham Kennedy and Darryl Tweed (Wilson Craig Honda) from Ballymoney completed the top five.

Dunlop will now be gunning for a hat-trick in the feature ‘Race of the South’ finale in the afternoon as he warms up for the Southern 100 on the Isle of Man, where practice gets under way on Monday.

Meanwhile, newcomer Kevin Keyes impressed on his road racing debut as the Edenderry man won first time out in the Senior Support race, sealing victory by 1.633s from Keelim Ryan with Michael Gahan a close third.

Ballymena’s Barry Davidson won the Junior Classic race by seven seconds from John Leigh-Pemberton, while Keelim Ryan got the verdict in the Moto3/SS300/SS400 race on his Faraldo Racing 450.