Last week's NW200 will be best remembered for the wrong reasons as the one which tragically took the life of road racing legend Robert Dunlop. Understandably there was a serious cloud over the event.

Lee Johnston from Maguiresbridge made his debut at this year's race; not only was it Lee's first NW200, it was also his very first road race.

Tuesday night's qualifying also has a session for newcomers. This is held under controlled conditions where experienced ex-racers lead them round.

After this session, the riders are put into their respective classes. For this event, Lee was running in a new colour scheme, not in his distinctive Pennell Transport/Armstrong Engineering livery, but in the blue of Mar-train transport. Unfortunately there was an incident during the Supersport practice and Lee only had two flying laps to place him in 33rd place.

Thursday practice went much better. No accidents and fine weather allowed Lee to turn in a number of fast laps to qualify a very creditable 23rd on the grid.

Saturday's race day got off to a remarkable and emotional start with a win for Michael Dunlop, two days after his father was killed on the circuit and his first win.

Lee was out in the third race, the first Supersport 600 race of the day. After an excellent start Lee rode a safe race to 18th place; really using the race as an extra practice for his second race, the last race of the day.

Once again he got off to a great start and moved steadily up through the field from his start of 23rd place to finish an incredible 11th place.

All the more remarkable as Lee's bike runs a standard engine as required for his Superstock racing in England and all of the machines in front of him and quite a few behind have highly tuned Supersport engines run by better funded teams.

His fastest lap was 114.51mph and he was by far the best newcomer in the Supersport race as well as being highest Fermanagh finisher. Not bad for a rider who had never been round the course four days earlier!

Lee was delighted with his results "I thoroughly enjoyed that, the bike went well but just isn't as quick as the tuned bikes, but the crowds were great.

"I've had loads of local people coming up and wishing me well and it's been a great experience.

"I'm very grateful to Mar-train for their support and would like to thank the organisers for the opportunity to race here."

Next week, Lee gets back to the British Championship where he hopes to climb the rostrum again at Donington Park.

After his last two third places a win must surely be on the cards soon, in the 600 Superstock Championship.