Michael Sweeney seals Superbike pole from Derek Sheils at Tandragee 100

Sweeney, riding the MJR BMW, posted his best lap in 3m 01.915s (105.75mph) to secure the top spot from fellow Republic of Ireland rider Derek Sheils (Roadhouse Macau BMW).

Sheils is having his first outing of the year on the roads at the North Armagh meeting and was 0.624s back in second place on the time sheets following his best lap of 105.388mph.

Mullingar’s Thomas Maxwell was third quickest on his Kawasaki, almost four seconds back on Sheils, with Wexford’s Graham Kennedy in fourth, 2.2s back on Maxwell.

Dominic Herbertson and James Chawke completed the top six places in the five-lap qualifying session around the 5.3-mile course.

Sweeney, who notched a hat-trick at last week’s Cookstown 100 with two Superbike wins and a Supertwin victory, also led the way in Supertwin/Supermono qualifying on his Kawasaki.

The Skerries man took pole by 2.954s from Banbridge native Shaun Anderson (Kramer 690), with Welshman Paul Williams six-tenths further back in third.

And he made it a pole hat-trick in the Supersport class on his Yamaha R6, setting the fastest lap at 103.104mph to put him 1.8s ahead of Czech rider Michal ‘Indy’ Dokoupil, with Dominic Herbertson in third.

Herbertson is riding a Burrows Engineering/RK Racing Yamaha as a stand-in rider for Cork’s Mike Browne, who sustained two broken ankles in a crash at the Cookstown 100 last weekend.

Dokoupil will also ride for Burrows’ team on a Honda 250 in the Moto3/125GP race.

Guy Martin was a surprise entry at Cookstown and the hit TV presenter has brought his BSA 750 to Tandragee, where he was second quickest behind Andy Hornby.

Herbertson was out on his own in the Junior Classic session as he claimed the top spot in qualifying by 12 seconds from John Leigh Pemberton.