'Man of the meeting'

Dan Kneen dominates the Faugheen 50

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• DanKneen

Irish road racing newcomer Dan Kneen dominated the Faugheen 50 Road Races on Sunday. Kneen won the Open and the Grand Final Superbike races and claimed his maiden victory of the season in the Supersport class which gained him the ‘Man of the Meeting’ award.

The race hasn’t run for five years due to lack of funds so Kneen wasn’t the only newcomer there on the short but bumpy track.
The 600 went well but Dan says he made a mistake in practice so was fifth on the grid. He managed to get a good start and pushed Magee for two laps until he overshot, allowing Dan to take the win.
Dan said:
“I haven’t really had a good run on the twin all year as we've had a lot of issues, but now some of those issues are put to bed I've been able to up my pace.”
Three riders broke the lap record in practice with Kneen ending up second.  Another good start for Kneen saw him and Magee setting the pace, with Kneen ending up having to settle for second.
Dan said:
“I have really enjoyed riding the Superbike this year. I ended up pole on it and I got another good start in the open race, pulling a good seven second lead over Derek Sheils and kept that to the end taking the win and the Irish Superbike championship with a round left. If you'd asked me at the start of the year would I have won it, I'd say no way as there's a lot of boys raced these tracks before and I would’ve thought I didn't have the experience, so I'm made up now.”
Once Kneen had that in the bag he had some fun in the Grand Final.  Getting away early to the front he kept his head down and opened up a six second lead before a bird hit his brake lever coming up to one of the road ends.  After shaking that off he opened up a lead again and went on to win, taking 'Man of the Meeting' for the first time this year .
Cookstown B.E. Racing team boss John Burrows praised Dan’s performance:
“Dan’s hat-trick today was great and for me the 600 win was outstanding, it was his first of the year in that class,” “What a year this is turning out to be. We started off by winning at Cookstown and the victories have just kept coming thanks to the riding of Dan and Michael and the professional efforts of all the crew,”
Burrows is also optimistic about the upcoming Ulster Grand Prix, saying:
“I’m sure Dan can mix it with the factory boys and I’ll not be surprised if he’s standing on the rostrum in front of the Joey Dunlop Grandstand before the end of this week.”
No time for resting on laurels though as practice for the Metzeler Ulster Grand Prix and Topaz Dundrod 150 meetings gets underway with roads closing for practice at 12 pm on Wednesday.