Martin Finnegan off to a flyer at Cookstown 100

Irish road racing
By Phil Wain
May 1 2006

Martin Finnegan got his 2006 pure road racing season off to the perfect start today, with a thrilling victory in the feature Cookstown 100 road race.

Riding the Klaffi Honda, the Lusk rider came out on top after a terrific five-rider dice, which lasted for the entire ten laps of the 2.1-mile Orritor circuit, and he also posted a final lap of 1m25.7s to leave the circuit with a new outright lap record beside his name. The rest of the day didn’t go as smoothly for the 25-year-old but, nevertheless, the win proved that he’s back on the Irish Road Racing scene with a vengeance.

Having experienced a few problems in practice, especially with the gearing on his Supersport 600cc machine, Martin’s day started in inauspicious circumstances whilst disputing the lead in the Open race, when both he and Ian Hutchinson ran wide on the final corner and collided. Although Hutchinson was able to stay on board, Martin tasted the tarmac and was unable to re-start. Unhurt in the spill, Martin re-grouped for the Supersport 600cc race and, despite starting in the second group, he was able to fight his way through for tenth - although he would obviously have liked to have been higher. After a somewhat up and down day, the final race gave him the chance to put matters right, and he responded in ideal fashion on his CBR1000cc Klaffi Honda.

After taking his second Cookstown 100 race in three years, Martin commented:
“It was a bit of a mixed day, but overall I’m very happy with the way it went and to get a win and a lap record at the first meeting of the season is very pleasing. I made a small mistake in the first Open race, running wide on the brakes, and just touched the back wheel of Ian Hutchinson, who had also run wide. It was a shame as we were looking good but no damage was done and it was just one of those things. The 600cc race was a bit of a disaster and we had a misfire in practice, which meant I was at the back of the grid.”

“We’ve hardly done any testing on the 600 but we got it fixed for the race and got a finish, but we’ve still got a bit of work to do with the bike. The feature race was a cracker and, having struggled in 2005 to get the Honda off the line, I was pleased to make two good starts today. I sat with the bunch and decided to push on in the final laps, eventually overtaking John Burrows at the first corner and opening up a two second lead by the chequered flag. I’m very happy to have taken my first win for the Klaffi Honda team, and hopefully we can keep it up for the rest of the year.”

Martin’s next outing comes in a week’s time, with the Tandragee 100 road races taking place next Saturday, 6th May.