Munster 100

Set in beautiful picturesque West Cork, Timoleague is a visitors paradise, and like the rest of the villages surrounding Courtmacsherry Bay the natural beauty is breathtaking, but the natural peace and quiet of the area was disturbed in a most spectacular way when the West Cork MCC moved their Munster 100 Road Race event from Dunmanway to a much tighter and tricky 3.1 mile course just outside the town.

But it didn’t matter to the man of the moment Michael Dunlop as he again was the Man of the Meeting following from his success at the Ulster Grand Prix. With the event clashing with the Mondello Masters, and with 50 Irish Riders at the Manx Grand Prix, the entry was poor, and yet the fans turned out in their droves to witness some spectacular action.

The tricky 3.1 mile course was very tight, and this made passing near to impossibility, but for Michael Dunlop he was making another national meeting his own. The quantity wasn’t there but the quality again came through for the 23 year old Dunlop.

The first race of the day saw Dunlop and Dubliner Derek Sheils slog it out for the Open Championship, and by lap three Dunlop was in command and Sheils had no answer for the Street Sweep Kawasaki, as he was out on his 600 after the Amigos R1 gave terrible trouble in practice and he just couldn’t get it to go.

Dunlop won by 2.164 seconds from Sheils with John Burrows taking third ahead of William Dunlop who was having terrible trouble keeping the Wilson Craig Honda on the road such was the power of the superbike around the tight course.

Derek Mc. Gee continued his excellent season in the Senior Support class, and he won both the Championship and non-championship race. In the Championship race he just got the better of a great battle between Gary Millar and Ronan Pentony, with the gap between the three at the flag only 0.833 of a second. In race two Mc. Gee made sure he wasn’t going to be caught and at the flag he beat Ronan Pentony by over 28 seconds, with Gary Millar a further 7 seconds back in third.

In the 250 race Skerries rider Ciaran Donnelly took the lead on lap one from William Dunlop and Jeff Shaw, but Dunlop restored his usual lead on lap two and was never headed leaving Ciaran Donnelly to take second with Shaw third.

English rider Tim Stephens took the 350 Classic from Herbie Ronan and Mark Mc. Closkey. Geoff Mc. Mullen made a rare appearance on his very fast 250 Suzuki and easily took the win from Jeff Ward and Philip Shaw.

William Dunlop was a non starter in the 600 after his clutch packed up. This left his brother Michael in to win race number two from Derek Sheils and John Burrows. Dunlop had 4.607 seconds to spare at the end over the Dubliner, with Burrows a further 5 seconds back.

The Junior Support race was red flagged at the end of lap one as rain started to fall with Ciaran Donnelly leading. In the re-start Donnelly got at terrible start and at the end of lap 1 he was back in third behind local rider Ciaran O’ Callaghan and Ronan Pentony. By the end of lap two Donnelly was on Pentony’s rear wheel, and at the big jump on lap three Donnelly made a scary move to pass the Drogheda rider and nearly came to grief, but he kept at Pentony as O’ Callaghan was moving further ahead. On the final circuit Donnelly squeezed past Pentony to finish second behind O’ Callaghan, with Pentony third.

William Dunlop had again to come from behind in the 125 race after Ciaran Donnelly took the lead on lap one, but by the end of lap two Dunlop had put in the fastest lap of the race to take the lead, and he kept going to beat the Skerries rider by 7.385 seconds, with Jeff Shaw taking third.

John Burrows took his Kawasaki to a 650 Supertwin race win from local rider Ciaran O’ Callaghan, after leading from the start and to be fair he slowed towards the end, leaving O’ Callaghan to fend off Ronan Pentony to take third.

Freddie Stewart took the 500 Classic win from Billy Lyle and Sean Henry, and Mark Morgan beat local rider Mark Connolly in the 1000cc class.

The Grand Final had a top prize of €3000 and William Dunlop decided to take his 250 Honda to the line in favour of his Superbike as he thought it would be easier to handle. Unfortunately the 250 was slow off the line and it was his younger brother Michael who stormed into the lead with Derek Sheils and Brian Mc. Cormack in third. William was trying hard to make up ground and took a slip road to drop him back down the field. John Burrows also got a terrible start, but he was flying and by the end of lap three he was up to third.

There was no catching Dunlop who broke the 90mph lap for the first time of the weekend on lap four and he took the win by over seven seconds from Derek Sheils, with John Burrows delighted with his third place. Brian Mc. Cormack was fourth and William Dunlop finished fifth.

It was unfair to the West Cork Club to see a clash of events, and unfortunately they were the ones who suffered with the entries, but the meeting was well run, and as usual for the team of Sean Bissett, racing was completed by 4.15 and the large crowd were delighted with the entertainment that they saw for the day.

Jack Corry