Derek Sheils and Brian McCormack were the stars as the 2024 Principal Insurance Masters Superbike Championship continued last weekend at Mondello Park (May 18th & 19th). The former Superbike Champions shared the wins with Sheils taking Rounds 4 and 5 and McCormack round 6. Oisin Maher also laid down a marker in Supersport with three wins ahead of former champion Emmett O’Grady.
The grids for Superbike and Supersport lined up without championship leader Kevin Keyes, following a Friday testing accident which put the Daracore Racing rider out for the weekend. That left Sheils and McCormack, on their Road House Macau backed BMW’s to battle it out for the wins. McCormack lead the opening two races before Sheils moved by to secure his first wins of the season, while Peter Moloney’s Suzuki took third in race one and Emmett O’Grady did the same, on the TAG Racing Honda, in race two. Ronan Waters took the opening two Superbike Cup wins ahead of Declan Madden in race one and Ryan Whitehall in race two.
Race three was shortened following a stoppage and with the re-run taking place over just six laps, Sheils was in more of a hurry to get to the front. The Wicklow rider lead at the end of lap one and pushed hard enough to set his best ever time around Mondello Park, less than 0.4 seconds off the lap record. However, in his efforts to break away from McCormack, Sheils uncharacteristically pushed too hard and dropped his bike at the start of lap four. The demise of Sheils left McCormack to cruise home, two seconds clear of O’Grady with County Down’s Daniel Matheson third. Waters took another Cup win ahead of Superbike rookie Darren Tierney and Declan Madden. McCormack now leads the Superbike points from Keyes and O’Grady with Waters and Madden the top two in the Cup class.
The three Supersport races were also two-horse races with teammates Oisin Maher and Emmett O’Grady battling throughout the weekend. In the end it was the ever improving Maher who took the wins, with the Tipperary youngster bringing his AKR Thomas Bourne Racing Honda home ahead of team mate O’Grady on each occasion. The third spot on the podium was shared between Cup front-runners, Brandon Kavanagh and Jack Whearty, with Kavanagh taking the first two and Whearty the third. Kavanagh also took two Cup wins to Whearty’s one and now sits on top of the standings ahead of Whearty and Gary Reilly while in the main championship Maher, O’Grady and Kavanagh all overtook the absent Keyes
Maher’s excellent start to the season continued in the Megabikes Supertwin category where he took his VTL Aprilia to three victories, continuing his unbeaten start to the year. Sean Brolly took second each time on his Aprilia with the Italian manufacturer also filling third place on two occasions, with Kelan Smith on board, while Jason Whelan’s Kawasaki was the only non Aprilia to make the podium. The Production Twin class produced three different winners with Michael Murphy taking his maiden win in race one, Mark McGauran wining race two and Jeff Quilter finishing off the weekend with a victory that gave him back his championship lead.
The DM Groundworks Junior races resulted in a trio of Junior Supersport wins for Reuben Sherman Boyd, with Alanna Maher best of the rest, taking two seconds and a third. Joey Milliken and Rhys Gates also made the podium over the weekend. In Moto1 it was Fionn O’Connell who did all the winning with six different riders making the podium over the three races.
The next Principal Insurance Masters event sees the championship continue on the Mondello Park National Track at the end of June with three more rounds scheduled for all classes.
