MOTORCYCLING: Coates does the double at Bishopscourt

There was success for Nikki Coates at the Temple Club's Irish Championship short circuit meeting at Bishopscourt on Saturday, with the Ballyrobert rider winning both the supersport and superbike races on the Kingsbury Packaging machines.

By The Newsroom

Published 14th Jun 2016, 09:48 BST

Updated 14th Jun 2016, 10:52 BST

In the opening supersport race he finished ahead of Jason Lynn by over a second, with Christian Elkin third, but in the second eight lapper, it was Elkin who pushed Coates all the way to the line, with only 0.8 seconds separating the two at the finish. He took both superbike race wins from Robert English on the IFS R1 Yamaha.

Commenting on his performance, Nikki said: “That was hard work. I led all the races from start to finish apart from the second supersport. I was third off the line, but I picked them off and hit the front to win a close run race from Christian. It was great racing to be part off in the supersport class with upwards on eight off us racing at the front. I really enjoyed the day. At the start of the season I asked the team to allow me to race in both championships but I didn’t realise the workload I’d be giving them. So a big thank you to the team for all their hard work. This one is for them.”