Racing on County Armagh’s 5.34-mile Tandragee road course returned for the first time since 2022 on Saturday, a few miles south of Portadown.

Two of the stars of the meeting - Michael Dunlop MBE and Conor Cummins - had to don high-viz as neither had ridden there for a number of years (18 in Conor’s case).

Dan Kneen’s outright lap record from 2018 was broken by Michael Sweeney in the first open race, which he lost to Dunlop by a mere four 10ths of a second.

Come the Tandragee 100 Feature event and Dunlop rebroke that record on the second lap of the race. Sweeney grabbed it back next time round, before Dunlop turned on the taps aboard his MD Racing BMW to put in an amazing 111mph lap and take the win by a comfortable eight-second margin.

The Ballymoney ace also set new lap record in the Supersport races, but only finished third and second as he had to start in group two because he only managed one qualifying lap on his TT-winning Ducati V2 so had to pass through the first group, hampering his progress. Mike Browne secured back-to-back wins in both.

Course newcomer, Sulby’s Dan Sayle, won the combined Classic 125/250 GP race by a wide margin on his 250 Honda, while Burrows Engineering/RK Racing rider Cummins was fourth and third in the Supersport races on the Ducati, third in the open race and fourth in the feature event on the BMW.

Newcomer Marcus Simpson did well to finish fifth in the two Superbike races, and again in the Supertwin behind fellow Manx newcomer Joe Yeardsley. Unfortunately the latter slipped off in the open race and didn’t take any further participation. His injuries were not serious.

Darryl Tweed snatched a last-gasp Supertwin victory after a final-corner error from Sweeney. Sulby’s Dale Brew retired on lap four.

BAYLON MCCAUGHEY