By Dominant within last night’s Invitational race, could anyone stop Michael Dunlop MBE’s 2026 C100 wins hat-trick pursuit?
In contrast to the previous 1000cc machinery-based contest, thirty-three times TT winner Dunlop MBE was not-able to sprint clear in the AJM Sales Open (A) race.
Michael Sweeney (Martin Jones Racing BMW) lapping inside 1.23 seconds, made sure his good friend could not relax, keeping close tabs on the TT wins record-holder.
As lap six finalised, Dunlop MBE nearing his own existing lap-record, managed to eek out the race-lead to 0.9 of a second.
Quickly afterwards, an undisclosed incident forced race action to prematurely conclude.
The race result was soon after made official with Dunlop MBE declared the race victor, Sweeney second, Darryl Tweed third, Marcus Simpson fourth, Kevin Keyes fifth, James Chawke sixth.
2026 Cookstown 100 – Open (A) Race Result:
1st – Michael Dunlop MBE
2nd – Michael Sweeney
3rd – Darryl Tweed
4th – Marcus Simpson
5th – Kevin Keyes
6th – James Chawke
7th – Sean Brolly
8th – Don Gilbert
9th – Darryl Anderson
10th – Dean McMaster
11th – Neil Kernohan
12th – Richard McLoughlin
13th – Ryan Whitehall
14th – Shaun Buckle
15th – Andy Farrell
16th – Julian Trummer
Photo credit: Tommy Vennard
Words by Stevie Rial #dontletfearcontrolyou
