Michael Sweeney celebrates a four-timer at the East Coast Festival at Killalane in September 2019.

Michael Sweeney was all revved up with nowhere to go in 2020 as the Skerries man struggled to adjust to life away from the Irish road racing paddocks for the first time since 2006.

The 39-year-old hasn’t missed a motorcycling season in 14 years but Sweeney and his fellow road racers found themselves at a loose end this year due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, ‘twiddling my thumbs and looking at spotless bikes in the garage’.

Last month’s rescheduled Cookstown 100 offered a mini-fix of between-the-hedges action but it was merely a temporary reprieve for Sweeney – interspersed with a rare short circuit outing a week later at Mondello Park – which has left him looking wistfully towards the prospect of brighter days ahead in 2021.

“Hopefully next year will be a lot different and things will start opening up again with a return to a more normal season,” Sweeney told the News Letter.

“Up until three weeks ago I was still intending to go to Macau and do the two-week quarantine over there, but in the end I had to be realistic. I’ve counted 14 lads who aren’t going, so there’s no way the race can go ahead.

“I was mad to get away but it’s just not going to happen, so that’s it for now.

“I’m just looking to next year and we’re actually hoping to get over to Spain in February for about two weeks and get some testing in.”

Sweeney, who was named the Irish National Road Racer of the Year back in January at the annual motorcycling awards bash in Belfast, had taken delivery of a new BMW S1000RR and Yamaha R6 this season.

He finished as the runner-up behind fellow BMW-mounted Derek Sheils in the sole Superbike race at Cookstown in September, fifth in the Supersport race and third in the Supertwin class on a rewarding day for the popular southern Irishman.

“I had a new BMW 1000 and 600 this year and they’ve hardly turned a wheel really,” he said.

“But myself and Derek, who has a new BMW as well, were surprised with the big bike first time out on the roads at Cookstown.

“We weren’t sure how they would work because the new bike is so different to the older bike with the electronics, but we just went out and got the heads down and managed to get away at the front. We had our own race really and I really enjoyed it.

“You miss people hanging over the hedges and waving their programmes and even just getting to meet up with all the other riders again was fantastic because everyone was buzzing.

“I haven’t missed a year’s racing since 2006 and with no racing, you’re left twiddling your thumbs at weekends. It’s only when you don’t have it that you realise how big a part it plays in your life,” added the 2019 Irish Supertwin and Supersport champion.

“The bikes are sitting in the garage spotless but there’s nowhere to go and you’ve nothing to do, so it’s just been the strangest feeling.”

A four-time Supertwin winner at the Dunlop Masters round last month at Mondello, Sweeney is keeping his fingers crossed that road racing will return as normal next spring.

“We don’t really know anything else or do anything else and racing is just a way of life for us,” he said.

“The bikes are brand new and there’s no point in changing anything for next year. The BMW has barely 200 miles on it, so it’ll be the same plan for next year – just to get ready for 2021 and hopefully get away testing in February.

“If the road races do get delayed then we might have to look at trying to get a budget together to do some racing in England.

“I’m just lucky to have good lads behind me. Martin Jones owns the BMW, Eamon Mulligan owns the 600 and then there’s Bill Kiely of Kiely Heating who owns the Supertwin. They’ve been great and they’ve bought new engines for the bikes.

“Even just last week we had a new engine bought as a spare, so they’re just as keen to get going again as I am and pray God we will do next year.”