Tyco Suzuki’s William Dunlop continued his rich vein of form following his return from injury, taking Supersport and Superbike victories during yesterday’s Walderstown National Road Races at County Westmeath in Ireland.
Dunlop missed-out on the Grand Final victory at the Race of the South – taking second place – but set a new class lap record in the Supersport encounter aboard his GSX-R600.
Said Dunlop: “Walderstown is my favourite national road race of the year, and the two wins and a lap record today justifies sitting out the Southern 100 last week. I felt really comfortable on the 600 today and Derek McGhee pushed me hard. I think the lap record was broken four times.”
On the Grand Final he added: “I don’t want to make any excuses as Dan [Kneen] rode a good race, but I messed up the start and made a few mistakes, and once a gap had formed I settled for second place. We did take the opening Superbike win from the second row of the grid, and although my ankle is a bit stiff now I think this is the sort of workout it needed. That’s wins at Skerries and Walderstown, which sets me up well for Armoy in a couple of weeks and then the Ulster Grand Prix.”
Team Manager Philip Neill said: “It’s been a pretty good few days for Tyco Suzuki on the roads with Guy winning the Solo Championship at the Southern 100 and William adding to his Skerries win with another two at Walderstown.
“Having to break lap records to win races shows that he’s certainly back on the pace at the sharp-end and the Tyco Suzuki GSX-R machinery is up to the task. We now have a few busy weeks with British Championship and road racing back-to-back, but it’s nice to be talking about podiums, lap records and wins again as it motivates everyone: from riders to team personnel and of course our sponsors.”
Superbike Results: 1 William Dunlop (Tyco Suzuki); 2 Derek Shiels +0.679sec; 3 Michael Sweeney +4.466sec.
Supersport Results: 1 William Dunlop (Tyco Suzuki); 2 Derek McGhee +1.042sec; 3 Dan Kneen +8.383sec. [New Lap Record for William Dunlop].
Grand Final Results: 1 Dan Kneen; 2 William Dunlop (Tyco Suzuki) +6.534sec; 3 Shiels +7.789sec.
