Dunlop clinches treble at Walderstown road races

Michael Dunlop raced to a hat-trick of wins at the Walderstown road races as the event returned to the Irish national calendar for the first time since 2022.

The Ballymoney rider won the Open race, the Supersport outing and the Grand Final in Athlone to complete his treble.

The 36-time Isle of Man TT winner also sealed three wins on the last staging of the meeting four years ago.

Dunlop, riding his MD Racing BMW, got the better of pole sitter Michael Sweeney to take the Open race honours, with Mullingar competitor Derek McGee completing the rostrum places on his Burrows Engineering/RK Racing BMW.

Dunlop bossed the Supersport event to take the chequered flag from Kevin Keyes and Skerries rider Sweeney.

The 37-year-old grabbed his third win of the day in the Grand Final, taking victory by a margin of 1.2 seconds from Sweeney on an MJR BMW, with Keyes making up the podium positions, and McGee fourth.

Sweeney racked up his 50th Irish national road racing success by winning the Supertwins race.