He continued his successful start to the new season by riding to three top five finishes at the Cookstown 100 meeting in Ireland last Saturday.


The Cookstown 100 is the opening round of the Irish road racing championship and where Johnson was to make his debut on unfamiliar territory for Uel Duncan on the Robinson Concrete Honda.


Practice was held in the wet but Johnson is a quick learner and soon got to grips with the 2.1-mile Orritor closed road course and qualified for a front row start to all three of his races.


As the Cookstown Town Centre Forum Open class race got underway, Johnson shot off to lead the field round the first lap, opening up a strong three-second lead as he raced towards the first corner on lap two. But he misjudged his braking point and overshot the corner, losing ground and rejoining further down the field.


As the race progressed Johnson began to move forward and completed the 10-lap affair in fourth place, just three tenths of a second away from Keith Amor who took the final podium slot of third.


Next up was the Supersport race, again run over 10 laps and Johnson set off in fourth position. But as he went to overtake Martin Finnegan he had a big moment and dropped back to 20th with everything to do again. Circulating well within the existing lap record he made his way back through to fourth place but, on the final lap, left the door open for Michael Dunlop to nip past leaving Johnson to claim fifth place.


In the feature race of the day, the Cookstown 100 Superbike race Johnson opted to use his Superstock machine and was soon up into second place. But again he overshot the first corner and completed the 10 laps in fourth position.


“All in all, it's been a good weekend for me, and although I haven't got any spectacular results, I was there or thereabouts in all of the races and if it wasn't for my lack of experience, I reckon a few podiums would have been the end result. Having practiced in the wet, it was really difficult to judge where the braking points were in the dry and in practically every race I overshot. That made life difficult but I got my head down and put in some very competitive times so I've got to be pleased,” said Johnson.


“I didn't want to push too hard and do something silly with the International races on the horizon so I feel like I rode with a bit in reserve, but if I hadn't have made those mistakes, a win wouldn't have been far away. I opted to stick with the Superstock bike as it was tried and tested and the Dunlop tyres were awesome again so thanks to everyone in the team for all their efforts. We've built up a nice bit of momentum and we can look forward to the North West 200 knowing we're fully prepared and ready to give our maximum.”