The Tandragee 100 Irish road races were overshadowed by a serious accident on Saturday that left a r𝕴ider critically injured.

Dario ওCecconi (38) came off ꦏin the Senior Support race on the final lap. The final two races were abandoned.

The Tandragee meeting i♋s the first race on the 2017 c🔯alendar in Ireland.

Ho♓nda Racing's Guy Martin was among those taking part 🧸and the Lincolnshire rider was caught up in some early drama after crashing on the first lap of the opening Superbike race.

Martin and Ulsꦚterman Paul Jordan tangled and crashed into a grass verge, but both were unhurt. The English rider was making his roads bow on🦄 the new Honda SP2 Superstock machine at Tandragee, where he hadn't raced since 2005.

Martin needs to compete in six race𓆏s in order to gain his licence to be eligible for the I﷽sle of Man TT after he missed the whole of the 2016 season.

Th⛦e 35-year-old never completed a full racing lap on Saturday after the✃ second Superbike race was called off due to the serious incident later in the evening.

Martin is entered at the Cookstown 100 in County Tyrone next weekend before he returns to the North West 200 in May, whi🧸ch is the first major international road race of 2017.

Irishman Derek Sheils won the only S🔯uperbike race at Tandragee on the Cookstown/B.E. Racing Suzuki by 14 seconds from William Dunlop, who was riding a Yamaha R1 Superstock machine in the Mar-Train colours. Dunlop took up an offer to ride the🌃 bike at Tandragee with no 1000cc machinery yet forthcoming from Halsall Racing - the team Dunlop signed a deal with for 2017.

The Ball✅ymoney man finished as the runner-up in wet conditions in the Supersport race, which was won by Derek McGee from Mullingar, who also finished on the podium in third in the Superbike race.

Heavy rain prevailed for most of the day and the serious incident late in the afternoon cast a cloud over the event, which is regarded as one of the very best Na🦋tional road race meetings in Ireland.