Dan Kneen made a cracking start to his season when winning the 40th Enkalon Trophy showpiece race at Bishopscourt on Saturday.

He then had another double at Kirkistown on Easter Monday aboard the same DTR-backed BMW S1000RR superstock machine.

Pole-man at Bishopscourt, Kneen held the advantage in the first race to win by 1.6 seconds from the home pairing of Gerard Kinghan and Alistair Kirk.

TT regular, South Africa’s Hudson Kennaugh finished fourth.

Race two was restarted over four laps after a red flag incident and this time it was Kennaugh who came through to take up the running on Ryan Farquhar’s ZX-10R.

The experienced BSB rider was in determined mood and held firm at the front to keep Kneen at bay, crossing the line to take victory by 0.2 seconds from the Manxman. Kinghan was again third.

Kneen was crowned the Enkalon champion overall, receiving a cheque for £1,000.

The 29-year-old continued his good form with a brace of wins at Kirkistown on County Down’s Ards Peninsula.

He was a comfortable winner in the Superbike class as he opened his account in the first race from Charles Stuart and Mark Glasgow. Kneen also prevailed to win the feature Mayor’s Trophy.

Kneen would have raced the Tandragee 100 this weekend had it not clashed with a three-day test on the Penz13.com BMW Superbike at the Autodrom Most circuit in the Czech Republic.

Dan is still on the lookout for a Supersport machine for the season ahead.

’I don’t have anything yet in terms of a 600,’ he told Belfast News Letter’s Kyle White. ’There doesn’t seem to be much out there. I’ve spoken to a few people, but nothing has come up yet and we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.’

Kneen will be back in the Czech Republic for round one of the International Road Racing Championship between the North West 200 and the TT.

The talented Manxman is also set to contest round two of the IRRC series at the resurrected former GP course of Imatra in Finland alongside Penz13 BMW team-mates Michael Rutter and Danny Webb. This event has been included in the 2017 Duke Road Race Rankings schedule, and runs directly before the Southern 100 from July 7-9.

l There wasn’t much luck for either Ryan Crowe/Harry Payne or Michael Jackson/Callum Crowe in sidecar action over the Easter weekend.

A technical problem on the first lap of practice at Cadwell Park put one engine out and the spare wasn’t available.

They are struggling financially to make it to Oulton Park this weekend.

Michael and Callum managed 10th (third in cup) in the British FSRA Championship race, not aided by a wrong tyre choice in damp conditions, resulting in a couple of spins.

Their motor blew in the dry on Monday.