Mid Antrim 150: Treble for Michael Dunlop at Clough after record-breaking Open victory on BMW

Michael Dunlop shattered the lap record at the Richard King Haulage Mid Antrim 150 on his way to a hat-trick at Clough with a commanding victory in the Open race.

Dunlop won the six-lap race, restarted after a red flag, by 19.440s from Ryan Whitehall (Suzuki), who was almost six seconds clear of Kevin Keyes (Daracore Racing Honda) in third.

placeholder image — Michael Dunlop on his way to victory on the MD Racing BMW at Alexander's Jump at the Mid Antrim 150 on Saturday. (Photo by Stephen Davison/Pacemaker Press)

Dunlop smashed established a new lap record for the class at 115.100mph on the penultimate lap, beating the previous benchmark achieved by Derek Sheils of 111.018mph in 2013, which was set when the Clough Loop was in place.

Keyes and fellow Republic of Ireland rider Joe Loughlin (BMW) traded places before Keyes pulled away to cement the final rostrum spot at the 3.5-mile course.

Ballymena’s Neil Kernohan (Kernohan Racing BMW) was four seconds adrift of Loughlin, while Sean Brolly finished sixth on his Ducati V2 Supersport machine.

Dunlop’s treble at Clough includes a win in the non-championship Supersport race on his Ducati V2 and victory in the Moto3 race on the Burrows Engineering/RK Racing Honda.

The 37-year-old has now won 142 Irish national road races during his career.