Ryan Farquhar's tremendous 2010 road racing season continued this week when the Dungannon rider claimed the annual Southern 100 Championship title on the Isle of Man. Held on the 4.25-mile Billown course, Ryan took victory in Thursday's feature race to get his name back on the trophy for the first time since 2003 whilst he also added three more victories to his account during the course of the four day festival.

The KMR Kawasaki rider opened his week with third place in Tuesday's Senior race, which was held in wet weather, although he was lucky to stay on board after fellow countryman Michael Pearson crashed behind him on the final lap. The sliding machine forced Ryan to mount a kerb at around 70mph, breaking the front rim, and the race was subsequently red flagged, the result being taken at the end of the fifth lap.

Wednesday's racing again started wet but dried up as the evening wore on and Ryan chalked up his first win of the week with a convincing win in the Mini Twins race. The race was held alongside the 250cc machines and, such was Ryan's pace, he was able to finish third overall only beaten by the 250cc Hondas of William Dunlop and Chris Palmer! He was then back out on his Superstock Kawasaki for the second Senior race and he left the field trailing firmly in his wake eventually taking the chequered flag 23 seconds clear of his nearest rival! He rounded the evening off with 4th place in the 600cc race.

Thursday saw the final race action and Ryan was able to go one better in the second 600cc race as he took third place behind the Yamahas of Michael and William Dunlop. The second Mini Twins race was a lot closer this time around but Ryan had everything under control on his 650cc ER6 Kawasaki and came home ahead of Roy Richardson for his third win of the week. That just left the main Southern 100 Championship race and a good start saw Ryan running in the front pack with the Superbike machines of Michael Dunlop and Cameron Donald.

He soon fought his way through to the front and had opened up a near 3-second lead by lap 5 when the red flag came out for a crash involving Michael Dunlop, although the young Ulsterman was fortunately uninjured. That meant a two-part race, which was good news for Ryan as, when he pulled in after the red flag, he found out that there was a hole in the radiator which would never have lasted if the race had gone the full distance. With fellow rider Mark Buckley loaning him a new radiator, Ryan was able to make the second part of the Championship race and, rather than sit behind Donald, he decided to lead from the front once more and take the victory on the road as well as on the timesheets.

Speaking on Friday, a delighted Ryan said:

"I'm well pleased with the results here at the Southern 100 and to win the main Championship race again is brilliant and I'm over the moon to get my name back on the trophy. Since I last won it in 2003, I seem to have always finished 2nd or 3rd but everything went my way this year. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to stay with the Superbikes but I got a good start and although they were quicker than me, they were holding me up in the corners so I made my way to the front and pulled away. When the red flag came out, I noticed there was a hole in the radiator and I thought that was me finished but I got talking to Mark Buckley who lent me his spare one and with the re-start taking place after the Sidecar race I had enough time to get it repaired, I knew I had a bit of an advantage over Cameron and could have just sat behind him but I didn't want to win the race like that and so got to the front and was able to take a really satisfying win, like I say, a big thank you to Mark for his generosity. The other races went well enough and with 4 wins, two thirds and a fourth, it's been a really good week so a big thank you to everyone in the team for all their hard work and again to all my sponsors for their continued support. What with Scarborough, the Southern and now Kells, it's certainly been a hectic week but let's hope I can finish it off with some more wins."

Ryan headed back to Ireland immediately after the Southern 100 had finished to contest the weekend's Kells Road Races.




Words: Phil Wain - Freelance PR