Solid start for Cameron Donald on Cookstown début

Irish road racing
By Phil Wain
May 1 2006

Cameron Donald enjoyed a profitable day of racing today at the Cookstown 100 road races, the traditional curtain raiser on the Irish pure road racing calendar.

Competing at the Orritor circuit for the first time, the Uel Duncan Racing rider stepped onto the podium in the Supersport 600cc race with a superb third place, and backed this up with a brace of sixths in the two Superbike events.

The Australian ace opened his account with a sixth place finish in the Open race and, having started in the second group of riders, Cameron enjoyed a good dice with Seamus Greene, eventually getting the better of his rival in the closing stages. The Supersport 600cc race was equally as fraught, but this time the 27-year-old was fighting it out at the head of the field with Ian Hutchinson and Raymond Porter. Riding the Wilson & Craig Honda, he was able to match the pace of the front two riders for the first half of the race, but eventually settled for a safe third place, with a comfortable margin back to fourth. In the final event of the day, the main Cookstown 100 race, he took the Robinson Concrete Honda FireBlade to another sixth place, thus ensuring he had finished all three of his races inside the top six, a terrific achievement and a more than satisfying start to his pure road race season.

Speaking at the conclusion of a hectic day’s racing, team manager Uel Duncan
said:
“It’s always good to get the first road race of the year under your belt and, with three top six finishes from the three races, including a podium, I’m more than happy. Cameron has proved yet again what an exceptionally talented rider he is, and although he had to start from the second group in the two Superbike races, he was only a few seconds adrift of the front runners at the chequered flag - I’m sure that if he had been in the first wave of riders, he would have been able to run with them.

“Cameron really enjoyed the circuit and he’s learning all the time, both on and off the bike. What’s particularly pleasing to see is his understanding with chief technician Davy Lappin, and the pair are building up a great relationship, which is a key component in being successful. We need to secure some key gearbox components for the 600cc machine in time for the North West 200, because it’s an ex-short circuit bike and they are configured differently - so as soon as we get them, we’ll be even stronger. Like I say, it’s been a good day and I’m over the moon with the results.”

The team’s next outing will be at the Tandragee 100 road races, on Saturday 6th May, and Donald will be joined for the first time this year by his team-mate Les Shand, who will be using the event as a shakedown for the North West 200.