Kyle White: Tandragee damp squib and North West 200 dilemma for John Burrows

The event was marking its 60th anniversary but the milestone celebrations turned into the proverbial damp squib as the event returned to the Irish road racing calendar for the first time since 2019.

Championed by many riders as the best national road race in the country, Friday’s superb dry and sunny weather for practice at least offered the opportunity for some quality time around the spectacular 5.3-mile course.

The organising team, led by Clerk of the Course Anne Forsythe, worked their way slickly through the qualifying sessions with no major disruptions, undoubtedly aided by the favourable conditions.

With Saturday’s gloomy weather forecast in mind, an opportunity presented itself to run one of the Superbike races on Friday evening with qualifying wrapped up in good time, although ironically it was the low-lying sun that ultimately prevented any racing from going ahead on safety grounds.

It seemed inevitable from early in the morning on race day that the meeting wouldn’t go the full distance.

Derek Sheils, making his first road racing appearance of the season after skipping the Cookstown 100, packed up and headed home. Sheils had qualified second fastest on the Roadhouse Macau BMW S1000RR behind fellow Republic of Ireland rider Michael Sweeney.

With the Isle of Man TT on the horizon, Sheils will have bigger fish to fry. The multiple Irish road racing champion isn’t competing at next week’s North West 200 and the TT will be his primary objective this year.

Sweeney was willing to venture out on the MJR BMW but said he wasn’t prepared to stick his neck on the line if another rider wanted it more.

As it was, the Superbike race was stopped when Forest Dunn and Matthew Rees crashed out, fortunately without serious injury.