Ryan Farquhar enjoyed a successful trip to the Isle of Man this week with some strong results at the Southern 100 road races. The KMR Kawasaki rider took the wins in both of the Supertwins races and backed this up with 3rd in the main Solo Championship race. He also grabbed another 3rd in the Senior race and 5th in the Open race, the only blemish coming with a retirement in the 600cc race.

With fine weather around the 4.25-mile Billown circuit, the week started slowly for Ryan with a somewhat lowly 5th place in Tuesday's 600cc/1000cc race, handling issues with the ZX-10R Superstock machine preventing him from getting near his personal best speeds but changes to the bike helped him improve to 3rd in the following days Senior race. On the same evening he won the combined 250cc/650cc race on his ER6 Supertwin machine after comfortably getting the better of the 250cc machine of William Dunlop.

The Supersport 600cc race was then stopped early on and re-run on Thursday although Ryan was an early retirement in the race. However, he was back out on the Supertwin where he again dominated the race, also setting a new lap record of 100.749mph, the first 100mph lap to be recorded in the class. The final race of the week was the Solo Championship race and, with further changes made to the handling of the bike, Ryan was able to run a good pace and with a best lap of 112.199mph, he pressurised Guy Martin throughout for second place, Michael Dunlop running away in the lead. Ryan was right on the back wheel of Martin for most of the race but ultimately had to settle for third when he began to run out of fuel on the final lap.

Speaking afterwards, a happy Ryan said:

"I always enjoy the Southern 100 and this week has been no exception, it's been fantastic. The club work so hard and do all they can to make things right for not only the rider but also everyone in the team so it's been great to see them rewarded with some superb weather and a good crowd. Everything went to plan in the Supertwins races and I really enjoyed the two races. The bike was flying and I was delighted to break the 100mph barrier on the bike, which I think put about 3mph on the old lap record. I've been struggling a bit with the set-up of the 600 and we made a few changes going into the race but, unfortunately, we went the wrong way. I got a decent enough start in the race but went backwards so it was better to pull in rather than stay out there and risk anything. It was the same with the big bike where the handling of the bike was the main issue. With three races though we got more bites of the cherry so were able to make changes after each race. I was quite disappointed with 5th in the first one but then improved to 3rd in the second so we altered the chassis set up a bit more for the Championship race and it was loads better. It improved the bike no end so I was able to have a good run and to lap at over 112mph on the bike was very pleasing. I was right on Guy's tail for most of the race and felt confident of nicking second on the final lap but because we were going that bit quicker, I started to run out of fuel on the last lap and the bike was cutting out at all the road ends. I had to just knock it off a wee bit and settle for third but it was a good result. It's a new bike and they always take time to get set up right but we've made a lot of improvements so are heading in the right direction. It seems that there's only a small window to work within regarding the chassis and the wheelbase, in particular, is critical. But, we got quicker and quicker as the week wore on and I've ended the week with a couple of wins, two thirds and a fifth so I'm happy enough."

Ryan now heads back to Oliver's Mount, Scarborough for the Cock o' the North road races, the meeting taking place on July 23/24



Words: Phil Wain - Freelance PR