Cookstown 100: Hat-trick for Dominic Herbertson after wide-margin Superbike success

The 33-year-old had already won the Supersport and Moto3 races for John Burrows’ Dungannon-based team and Herbertson claimed his hat-trick in style, powering clear in perfect conditions to win on the BMW M1000RR by half-a-minute from Ballymena’s Neil Kernohan (Yamaha R1).

Michael Sweeney had been holding a comfortable second place throughout the nine-lap race on the MJR BMW and was 13 seconds down on Herbertson going onto the final lap of the 2.1-mile Orritor course.

However, Sweeney apparently ran into problems con the final circuit and dropped a load of time, slipping back to fourth behind Kernohan and Lincolnshire’s Sam Johnson (Suzuki), who came through on corrected time.

Ryan Whitehall (Yamaha) and Keelim Ryan (Trison McMullan Kawasaki) were the top six.

Michael Dunlop, who dominated Friday’s Open Superbike invitation race on the Hawk Racing Honda, did not compete in Saturday’s races.

Dunlop crashed out of the Supersport invitation race on Friday but walked away unhurt from the incident.

The 34-year-old had qualified on pole in the Supersport and Supertwin classes and second in the Superbike category.

Earlier, Herbertson won the Moto3 race, which was pushed back to later in the day after a red-flag stoppage.

Riding the Burrows Engineering/RK Racing Honda, Herbertson took the chequered flag 11.72s ahead of veteran Nigel Moore (Honda), with Chris Meyer third on his 125cc Honda.

Barry Davidson won the concurrently run Supersport 300 race from his Trison McMullan Racing team-mate Lee Osprey.

Davidson also won the Classic 350 race from Nigel Moore.

Skerries man Sweeney cruised to his second victory of the weekend in the Supertwin race on his new 660 Aprilia, controlling the nine-lap race to win by 8.9s from Gareth Arnold on the Cowton Racing Aprilia.

Michael Gahan was nine seconds further in arrears in third on his Kawasaki after fending off Aidan Cleary.

Offaly’s Kevin Keyes fulfilled his promise on his Cookstown debut as he won the Supersport B race on the Daracore Racing Yamaha by 6.9s from fellow debutant Josh Corner on the Parker Transport Yamaha.

Former British Junior Superstock frontrunner Keyes will make his debut at the North West 200 and Isle of Man TT.

In the Superbike Open B race, Limerick’s James Chawke dominated on his Suzuki to win by 18.437s from Kidderminster’s Martin Morris (Honda).

Richard Ford won the Junior Classic 250 race on the Bob Jackson Racing 250 Suzuki from Malcolm Love (CB Racing Suzuki 250).