The traditional ‘road race’ season opener in Northern Ireland, the Cookstown ‘100’, round two of this season’s Duke Road Race Rankings enjoyed sunshine and shower – the shower arriving as the race action was due to start, but abated before the lights changed, leaving wet roads which soon dried out allowing a goods days racing which saw three lap records fall during the ambitious sixteen race programme.

At the conclusion of what was the seventy-fifth running of the Cookstown ‘100’ Road Races, local man Ryan

Farquhar returned to his home nearby, firstly as Man of the Meeting and also heading the Duke Rankings by some 95 points as a result of a double victory in the Open Race and the feature Cookstown 100 Race, plus a second place behind Keith Amor in the Supersport event.

Leader after Oliver’s Mount, Mick Goodings not entered drops to second in the table, whilst fellow non entry Chris Palmer remains in third spot. Making the first appearances of the 2008 season on the roads, Keith Amor and Michael Dunlop slot into fourth and fifth positions respectively, having both secured race wins

in the Supersport and Junior (250cc) races with brother William (Dunlop) sliding down two positions to sixth. Martin Finnegan, also on his first outing with his new team, entered the fray in seventh place.

Other New Entries are, Uel Duncan’s new rider, Gary Johnson in 11th; the ‘evergreen’ Robert Dunlop in 20th along with Newcomers’ race winners Adrian Mullen and Darwyn Young in 21st and 22nd positions.

Pos Rider Previous Moves Points

1 Ryan Farquhar 2 Up 1 305

2 Mick Goodings 1 Down 1 210

3 Chris Palmer 3 No Change 180

4 Keith Amor New Entry 114

5 Michael Dunlop New Entry 100

6 William Dunlop 4 Down 2 100

7 Martin Finnegan New Entry 94

8 Alistair Haworth 6 Down 2 72

9 Ivan Lintin 9 No Change 70

10 Tony Flinton 5 Down 5 68

11 Gary Johnson New Entry 60

12 Richard Gibson 7 Down 5 58

13 Keith Pringle 8 Down 5 56

14 Dave Woolams 10 Down 4 54

15 Victor Gilmore 17 Up 2 52

16 Ross Mountford 11 Down 5 52

17 Wayne Hamilton 12 Down 5 50

18 Andrew Neill 18 No Change 48

19 Phil Harvey 13 Down 6 46

20 Robert Dunlop New Entry 45

21 Adrian Mullen New Entry 45

22 Darwyn Young New Entry 45

23 Dwyer Agnew 14 Down 9 44

24 David Guiney 15 Down 9 44

25 Garry Dickinson 16 Down 9 42

Full details of the 2008 Duke Road Race Rankings can be found on www.paddockgossip.com, as the Tandragee ‘100’ Road Races host the third of the twenty-three rounds this year on Saturday 3rd May.