By Philip Wain

DAN COOPER ended the international road race season on a winning high at the Ulster GP.

The Brimscombe rider grabbed a thrilling final-lap victory in the Supertwins race, landing the victory by under half a second for his maiden international win.

It marked a great comeback for Cooper, who was one of two riders involved in a nasty crash in the opening Supertwins race at this year’s North West 200, in which race leader Ryan Farquhar lost the front of his KMR Kawasaki leaving Cooper with nowhere to go but hit the stricken Ulsterman.

He suffered two dislocated shoulders in the incident, which ruled him out of the remainder of the North West 200 and hindered his 2016 Isle of Man TT campaign. However, he bounced back to form at this year’s Ulster Grand Prix to clinch his maiden international victory after a six-way battle in the Supertwins race.

Having qualified in second place, Cooper was keen to make the most of his front-row start and from the moment the lights turned green it was clear that would be the case. Less than a second covered the leading six riders for the entire race with positions changing all the time but Cooper never dropped lower than third place.

Indeed, he led on numerous occasions and on the final lap, an overtaking manoeuvre at Jordan’s Cross put him in first place once more and with a strong second half to the lap, he duly took a brilliant win by just under half a second.

It was an excellent day for Cooper as he finished inside the top 12 in all of his races, only beaten by the bigger, factory teams. Riding the SB Tuning BMW Superstock machine, he opened his account for the day with 11th in the Superstock race where he lapped at 127.367mph and then repeated the result in the feature Ulster Grand Prix Superbike race, where he improved his personal best lap of the Dundrod circuit to 128.270mph.

He was also in action in the two six-lap Supersport races where he also enjoyed two excellent rides. Riding the SB Tuning Triumph on this occasion, he took a fine tenth place in the first encounter, just over three seconds adrift of eighth place, and he improved to ninth in the second race where he also set his best lap on a Supersport machine at 123.852mph.

Cooper said: “Winning the Supertwin race isn’t a bad way to end the day is it? We didn’t have any dry practice time on the bike, so I didn’t know how hard to push to begin with and I decided to sit with the leading group in the early stages and let the race settle down.

“There were a few wild overtaking manoeuvres going on but I kept in the front three places for much of the race and knew if I could lead into the hairpin going into the final lap, I had a good chance of holding on. I was stronger from there to the start and finish than the other riders and the plan worked out perfectly.

“It’s completed a really good day and having missed the majority of the TT, it’s nice to finish the International season with a good set of results.

“My lowest finish was 11th and I lapped at over 128mph on the big bike, so although I was a little disappointed with the Supersport results – the bike was good out the turns but a little bit down on top end – I’ve got to be happy with how it went.

“The riders ahead of me in the Supersport and Superbike races were all part of the big, factory teams so we can’t complain at all.

“The team have done a mega job again and days like this make up for the earlier disappointments.”

Cooper now returns to the Isle of Man for the Classic TT road races, which take place from August 20-29.