Cookstown 100 Road Races

By Claire Ballard

Having already had to cancel four trips to Northern Ireland and two to the Isle of Man for road race events it seemed a bit optimistic to be booking flights and hotels for the Cookstown 100 road races back in April. Whilst most clubs cancelled their events, when Cookstown announced they could not run in April they always said it was merely postponed and would aim to run in September. Thanks to a huge amount of work by club members and the support of government, PSNI and residents, bikes finally took to the roads on 11/12 September.

The Cookstown & District MCC was founded in 1922, making it one of the oldest and most successful road racing clubs still actively promoting road racing in Ireland. This year was the 88th running of the Cookstown 100 with the races being held over the 2.1 mile Orritor circuit in Country Tyrone.

For the event to run the club had to follow a number of restrictions which included spectator numbers being limited to 1,000 on the Friday and 1,600 on Saturday. One of the joys of Irish road racing is being able to get close to the teams in the paddock and move to different vantage points around the circuit during the day. Sadly this was not going to be possible with riders being limited to just two support staff and spectators having to select one of ten viewing areas and stay put for the day. Whilst some were not happy about this the general feeling was that if this is what it takes to be able to get racing then so be it.

You also had to book your admission in advance with the £25 getting you admission for both days and a race programme. Except for the Ulster GP road races in Northern Ireland are usually free of charge to enter unlike events in the South so this was quite a change. However, with the average national road race costing £100K to run this surely must be the way forward with the club being sure of a guaranteed income rather than hoping for good weather and fans buying a programme on the day. Last year programme sales were 50% down due to fans staying away due to a poor weather forecast. This seriously hit the club finances.

The club had a great entry with a healthy number of newcomers and several overseas riders including Danila Krasnik who had travelled from Russia for the event having to arrive in August to complete his quarantine. 16 practice sessions were held without incident on Friday and in lovely dry weather. At 1000 that morning stood in a field in pouring rain we would not have expected that.

The following day saw 11 races scheduled which would conclude with the Cookstown 100 Superbike race. It was a dry start but with rain predicted for late afternoon organisers were keen to get things moving quickly.

The opening race was the Senior Support A and it was great to see newcomer Ryan Whitehall from the Isle of Wight on the podium with a superb third place.

Adam Maclean was making his return to road racing since his nasty accident at Tandragee last year. Staying with the McAdoo team in what is their home circuit (the owners actually live on the circuit) he made an impressive return with a victory in the Supersport 600 race over Ballymoney man Darryl Tweed and Paul Jordan who was making his debut for the Burrows Engineering Team.

The Open race was the first opportunity of the afternoon to see the superbikes out and it proved to be a cracking race with a tight battle right to the end between Derek Sheils and Michael Sweeny with Sheils the eventual victor on his Roadhouse Macau Racing BMW. Sheils has switched to a new team this year following four successful years with the Burrows Team and was a surprise late entry having initially decided to sit out the event. It was a full Southern Irish podium with Thomas Maxwell taking third place.

Supertwins are always good to watch around this circuit and it was to be another win for Adam MacLean who led from start to finish, setting a new lap record in the process (previously held by the late James Cowton since 2015).

It was great to see Darryl Tweed take runner up spot having been offered a ride with the McAdoo team. Sadly, Tweed was to end his day with a trip to hospital after crashing whilst holding second in the very wet Lightweight Supersport race.

Michael Sweeney took the final podium place. In the end the weather was against the organisers with heavy rain coming in for the final three races of the day. This meant the cancellation of the big race of the day – the Cookstown 100 Superbike Race. It was the right decision by the club as conditions were just not suitable for racing the big bikes.

It was great to be back at a road race and all credit to the hard-working volunteers at the club for making it all happen. Cookstown is always the opening race of the year but for 2020 will also be the final one.