Ryan Farquhar marked his return to the Irish National Road Races on Saturday with a successful day's racing at Armoy. Competing at home for the first time since the Bush races back in June, the KMR Kawasaki rider took two wins, two seconds and two lap records from his five races, only a DNF caused by a holed radiator in the feature race preventing him from having a 100% finishing record.

Ryan's opening race of the day was the Supersport encounter where, after making repairs after Scarborough, he was back out on his ZX-6R Kawasaki. Michael Dunlop led the race from start to finish but, behind, Ryan enjoyed a good battle with Michael Pearson with little to choose between the pair. However, Ryan was able to edge away in the closing stages to finish second behind Dunlop but 1.3s clear of Guy Martin who also got the better of Pearson. Next up was the Open race where Dunlop again stole the early advantage before Ryan was able to sneak ahead. At the end of 4 laps there was just 0.3s between the front two but Dunlop slowly began to ease clear as Ryan found himself locked in another tussle with Pearson. Whilst Ryan was quicker in some places, Pearson was quicker in others and the positions changed on a number of occasions but, eventually, Ryan sealed second place for his second runner-up spot of the day.

The 450cc race followed which was a much simpler affair for Ryan as he ran out victor by some 20.3s, also setting a new lap record of 89.561mph and that led into the feature 'Race of Legends' event. However, on the 3rd lap, a stone kicked up by one of the lead machines punctured a hole in Ryan's radiator and he had little option other than to retire, his only DNF of the day. That just left the Supertwins race and Ryan took his second win of the day some 10 seconds ahead of John Burrows with another new lap record to his name, a lap of 94.881mph.

Speaking later, a pleased Ryan said;

"Everything's been spot-on today and with the exception of the main race, I've had a really good day's racing. I managed to get the 600 going again although I found that the filter in the fuel pump was blocked so that was holding me back a bit in practice but the bike was a lot better in the race. Michael Dunlop was flying and away with it so I had a good dice with Michael Pearson and managed to pull away from him towards the end. It was a similar story in the Open race and although I led on a couple of occasions, Michael was setting a fast pace and I had to let him go. The bike was running a bit rich and although I don't think I could have beaten him, I think it would have been a bit closer had it not been for that. Instead, I had my hands full with Pearson again and whilst I was quicker in some parts, he kept getting by me on the brakes into Armoy village which subsequently held me up a bit as it was hard to find a way by in the section after that. However, I managed to put in a decent pass on him to take another second and followed that up with a good win on the 450. The main race was going well until the radiator got holed and even though we had stainless steel mesh covering it, the stone that got kicked up still put a big hole in it and that was the end of the race for me. I was disappointed not to finish but I ended the day with a win and a lap record in the Supertwins race so I'm happy enough. The break has done me good and I feel like I'm riding as well as ever, which could be seen in the speeds as the lap records were broken in every class. I'm just focussing on enjoying my racing now and that's exactly how this weekend has been so I'm really looking forward to more of the same next time out."

Ryan now heads to the Mid Antrim 150 road races with the meeting taking place on Saturday August 6th.



Phil Wain - Freelance PR