Victory salute: Gary Dunlop hailed by the crowd after winning the 125cc/Moto3 race at the Skerries 100

Gary Dunlop marked the anniversary of the death of his cousin, William, with a win at the Skerries 100 yesterday on the circuit where William  lost his life in an accident on the same weekend last year.

Gary made it three wins on the bounce on his Joey’s Bar MCC Honda in the six-lap Moto3/125GP race, 11 seconds clear of Melissa Kennedy.

Derek Sheils was the star of the show, taking a blistering treble from local resident Michael Sweeney in the Grand Final, Open and Supersport races.

The 38-year-old from Glencree, Co Wicklow had an emphatic start-to-finish victory in the Grand Final, six and a half seconds ahead of Sweeney with Michael Browne in third nine and a half seconds back.

Earlier, riding the BE-RK Suzuki, Sheils was declared the winner of the Open race, which was red-flagged on lap four when Cornwall’s Forest Dunn high sided from his Suzuki when he “tucked the front on a bump in the middle of a corner and then the rear came round”.

The race was stopped and Dunn sent to hospital with a suspected broken collarbone.

Scheduled for seven laps, a three-lap restart was aborted when riders felt they didn’t have enough fuel to complete the race and the result was declared on the opening three laps.

Sheils was 0.476 seconds ahead of Sweeney at the time with Manx Grand Prix winner James Chawke, on his Suzuki, third, six and a half seconds behind the BMW of the Skerries rider.

Sheils doubled up in an even closer six-lap Supersport race, taking his first win in the class on the Roadhouse Macau Yamaha by just 0.064 seconds ahead of Sweeney with Ballymoney’s Darryl Tweed a further 1.8 seconds on his Honda.

Sweeney won the Supertwin race, leading home near-neighbour Andy Farrell by one and three quarter seconds.

Television star, author and motorcycle racer Guy Martin, a late entry, won the Classic 1000cc class on his 750cc BSA, crossing the line just six one hundredths of a second ahead of Cheshire rider Richard Ford.

Ben Rea won the 500cc Classic class, 13 seconds clear of Barry Davidson. Cullybackey man Davidson won the earlier 350cc Classic race, Brian Mateer won the 250cc class from Philip Shaw.

Vinny Brennan led home an ER6 Kawasaki 1-2-3 in the Junior Support race. He was 4.6 seconds ahead of Eoin O’Siochru, who had 23 seconds over Noel Smith.

There were only two 250GP machines on track and Kernohan won by 14 seconds from Davy Morgan, while in the 400cc class David Howard was the winner from Darryl Anderson.

Roy Harris