Sweeney dominates Tandragee practice

Michael Sweeney topped the timesheets in the Tandragee 100 qualifying on Friday afternoon.

The three-time winner at last weekend’s Cookstown road races set the fastest times in the Superbike, Supersport and Supertwin classes.

First out he put his twin on pole in the super twins over four seconds quicker than Paul Williams with Stephen McKnight third.

In the big bike session, Sweeney had late entry Derek Sheils for company but the Skerries man managed to hold his nerve and put in a time of 3’01.915, over half a second quicker than Sheils, with Thomas Maxwell four seconds in arrears.

His third fastest time came in the 600 outing, which saw him relatively unchallenged with a lap time of 3’06:583, two seconds ahead of Czech rider Mikchal Dokoupil - who is standing in for the injured Mike Browne after a crash at last week’s Cookstown races.

With Adam McLean, Browne and Paul Jordan all out injured, Derek Sheils looks like the only man that can stop Sweeney from repeating the treble victory he had last week. While wet weather forecast for Saturday’s race day could also put the cat among the pigeons with a few surprise results.