Manxmen Joe Yeardsley, Dan Sayle and Dale Brew were among 30 newcomers for the 104th running of the Cookstown 100 in County Tyrone last weekend.

Others included Barry Furber, Andrea Majola and BSB regular Franco Bourne.

There were no timed practice laps, but all newcomers - after taking a lap on the ‘convenors’ bus on Friday morning - then also had to complete five laps of the 2.1-mile course behind various instructors. Yeardsley was led round by multiple former winner Ryan Farquhar.

All regular competitors only had to complete five untimed laps to qualify, but many maximised their track time to get in as many laps as possible on closed roads.

In steadily improving conditions after a damp start to race day, Brew took part in the Junior Support on his 660 Aprilia twin. Embroiled in a close four-way battle with three other riders, finished ahead of them in 12th place.

Yeardsley did not appear for the feature race, but did start in the second wave for the Supertwins, ultimately finishing fourth overall behind Derek McGee, Michael Sweeney and Darryl Tweed.

Sayle also rode well as a first-timer to finish runner-up in the Moto 3 race, 18 seconds behind McGee on the Francesco Faraldo KTM.

Former Glen Auldyn resident Gareth Arnold was fifth on the Parker Racing Honda.

Michael Dunlop, who had raced in a 24-hour event at Le Mans the previous weekend, then completed a two-day BSB test at Oulton Park en route home to Northern Ireland.

He managed to break the outright lap record for the Orritor course on his way to winning the feature race on his MD Racing BMW Superstock machine.

His average speed on the penultimate lap was 91.480 mph, his previous record having stood since 2013.

Within another 24 hours, he was in the island for the TT launch.

BAYLON MCCAUGHEY