Dan Kneen continued his podium habit at the Cookstown 100 today notching up second and third places in the supersport races and third in the KDM feature race.

After qualifying on the front row two sluggish starts in the supersport races meant Kneen had to fight in the pack for his two podium finishes, snatching second in race one when Thomas crashed out before losing out to Derek McGee by three tenths of a second in race two to finish third.

Following a double at the Tandragee and with one eye firmly on next month’s North West 200 the decision was made to leave the superbike at home for Cookstown and run their superstock spec R1M in the big races. After qualifying seventh Kneen finished just off the podium in the opening race, a late charge gave him a chance of a podium but no safe option of a pass meant he settled for fourth at the flag. The grand final saw an exhilarating four man fight for second place with Shiels off at the front, Kneen ran fifth until the penultimate lap when he pushed past both Dunlop and McGee into third. It was déjà vu then as the Yamaha UK man tried to set up Mitchel-Thomas on the last lap but in the end settled for his thirteenth podium finish in fourteen races for Mar-Train.

Rider – Dan Kneen

“The supersport races were a little frustrating as I felt I had good pace. I got two poor starts and just couldn’t get a clear run to the front as there aren’t that many passing places. I was trying to line Malachi up on the last lap of the first race when he went down and I was lucky I didn’t get collected by his bike. In race two Derek got me going on to the last lap and covered his lines well to the flag. We’ve had so little time on the stock bike which is why we chose to run it here. I struggled in race one so we made a few changes for race two and it was an improvement although we still aren’t quite there with it. I was running up behind William in a lot of places but just couldn’t quite get through so when Derek ran wide and William hesitated on the penultimate lap I took my chance and got through to third. All in all a productive day and it was beneficial for the North West coming up.”

Team Principal – Tim Martin

“Another good day for Dan, it would have been nice to use the superbike and be a little more competitive in the big races but we needed time on the stock bike before the Internationals and I’m glad now we made that decision. It was slightly disappointing to finish off the podium in race one but we got the momentum back by grabbing third in the big race. I think if he had of gotten away he could have perhaps run second to Derek but good to see him fight through, he certainly isn’t afraid to get stuck in. The 600 is running well and I think he will surprise a few people this year in that class, again better starts could have changed his race so we can work on that. We’ve had a great build up over the past number of weeks so I’m looking forward now to the North West and TT coming up.”