By Victory in the Grand Final, topped off another positive meeting for Cookstown BE Racing and Derek Sheils, as they enjoyed a strong Walderstown ‘Race of the South’.
Putting behind him the disappointment of losing his unbeaten record on Superbike machinery in the Open race, within the Irish national roads scene, Derek Sheils stated he was determined to seal premier race success at Walderstown.
He said:
“I was determined to get away and I put in some very decent laps at the start and was able to pull away by a second a lap.
I set the fastest lap of the day and at the end of the eight laps I had six seconds to spare. It could have been a little more but I took my time through the back markers at the end.
The Grand Final victory made up for the earlier disappointment.”
Photo by Baylon McCaughey
Adding his thoughts on the Supersport and Super Twin races, which yielded him seventh and third place finishes respectively, the two times Irish road race Superbike champion stated:
“In the 600 race I got a good start but due to the gearing issue I was getting badly out dragged on the main straight by everyone so I ended up seventh.
When it came to Super Twins race I was fourth before moving ahead of McGee into third. I caught the second placed man but I ran out of time so a podium finish was as good as it got.”
Summing up Walderstown, for his team, Cookstown Burrows Engineering Racing Team Owner, John Burrows said:
“It was another good day for Cookstown Burrows Engineering Racing. Derek set the fastest lap of the day and dominated the feature Grand Final and maintained his lead in the Irish Superbike series.
Of course, it was a little disappointing to only take fourth in the Superbike Championship race but we all knew our unbeaten National Superbike run could not go on forever.
Derek beat ‘Mr Supertwins’ McGee in the Super Twins race but we hadn’t counted on two young guns being at the head of affairs. Fair play to Joe Loughlin and Adam McLean, they deserve a lot of credit for restricting our man to third.
Adding that their is some big news Super Twins wise, within the team in the next few days, John said:
“Next up for us is Faugheen where I plan to have a second rider in action in the Super Twins class. Watch out for some exciting news in the coming days!”
Words by Stevie Rial
