Michael Dunlop set himself up for this month’s Relentless International North West 200 with a hard-fought double in the Supersport and Superbike classes at the Tandragee 100.

Dunlop had no answer to KMR Kawasaki’s Ryan Farquhar in the Open race but he later regrouped and increased the tempo to defeat his chief opponent in a game of cat and mouse in the Supersport 600 race on his GSX-R600 Suzuki before repeating the feat in the feature race on his new Honda Superbike.

“It was a good day and I felt I could have went a bit quicker on the big bike because I was struggling with it a bit,” he told News Letter Sport.

“The front end kept coming up all the time and I was having to fight with the bike to try and tame it, but I did the best with what I could on the day.

“We can try a few things to solve it with the gearing before the North West 200,” he added. “I was a bit more comfortable on the bike for the big race after we made a few changes and I was able to pass Ryan for the win.

“We were riding at a hard pace out there but that’s what you need to do to win races.”

Farquhar powered to the front in the Open race and stayed there throughout the five laps on his Kawasaki ZX-10R Superstock machine.

He had 3.3 seconds in hand over Dunlop at the flag, with the fastest lap going to Farquhar at 107.554mph - some way off Dunlop’s 2011 lap record of 109.297mph, although conditions were far from ideal with cold temperatures and loose stones around the 5.3-mile Co Armagh circuit.

The leading pair had a massive advantage over John Burrows in third place, 19 seconds in arrears, with Adrian Archibald, Derek Sheils and Michael Pearson the top six.

Farquhar claimed a treble with victories in the Supertwin 650 and Moto 450 races in addition to his Open success.

Paul Robinson won the 125cc race from Sam Wilson and Nigel Moore. William Dunlop retired from the 125cc race, but was a winner in the 250cc class with Farquhar beating John Burrows and Jamie Hamilton in the concurrently run Supertwin race.



.