By Finishing tenth in Road Racing News top ten riders of the 2018 roads season is, multi class specialist, Martin Jones Racing stalwart Michael Sweeney.
Event in, event out Skerries Sweeney produced a consistent array of accomplished performances on the roads in 2018, producing some of the best rides of his already highly distinguished career.
Back in April, he opened his 2018 roads account with a brace of solid, consistent results at the Cookstown 100, including finishing third within the Open Superbike race, keeping pace throughout with 18 times TT winner Michael Dunlop.
Early May’s Around A Pound Tandragee 100 would see the twice Junior Manx GP champion finish a very creditable fourth, in a quite compelling, enthralling Grand Final race which saw under two seconds cover the top four finishers.
Main highlights of the Vauxhall International North West 200, would include a gritty fifth place finish in the second Super Twins race, whilst his fifth TT Races campaign yielded strong results such as 7th. 12th place finishes in the Bennetts Lightweight, showpiece Pokerstars Senior races.
Photo by Nick Wheeler
Following competition at TT 2018, the rest of the season proved extremely productive for the popular, well respected, always cheerful Sweeney.
Open/Grand Final victor at Skerries, amongst the leading Billown course newcomers at the Southern 100, multiple rostrum finishes were banked at Faugheen whilst the sole Supersport encounter at Armoy yielded another trip to the podium.
Quietly impressive at the MCE Insurance Ulster Grand Prix, he gained the focus of various roads aficionados with fourth, fifth place finishes within the opening Super Twin, second Supersport races.
September’s East Coast Racing Festival saw the affable Sweeney scoop the Man of the Meeting award, following an array of first rate results including Super Twin, Supersport Race 2 victories.
A recent 13th place finisher in the 52nd Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix, the multi class specialist stature has grown and grown locally and worldwide within the closed roads fraternity in 2018.
Runner up in both the Irish Road Race Supersport, Superbike Championships, he’s extracted and some the maximum out of the Martin Jones Racing, Kiely Heating Racing backed ER6 Kawasaki, YZF R6 Yamaha, S1000RR BMW steeds.
Words by Stevie Rial
