Clear blue skies and wall to wall sunshine greeted riders and official at Oliver’s Mount as practice got under way on time at 9.00am.
Practice and qualifying completed, a brief lunch break, then the action started with the first of nine races,
heat 1 of the 600cc Supersport class over eight laps, which was won by Ryan Farquhar with Ivan Lintin second and Robert Wilson third.
Race two saw the three wheelers having their first outing of the day with a six lap first leg of two. The race was red flagged on the opening lap after an outfit flipped at Drury’s, both driver and passenger ok.
The restart over the full race distance saw Greg Lambert take the hole-shot into Mere Hairpin from the Bell family.
At the end of the first lap it was still Lambert, Bell and Conrad Harrison third 1.5 seconds behind the leader. Only a tenth of a second separated first and second.
Lambert and Bell had a coming together at Mere Hairpin let Harrison into the lead which he held at the end of the lap from Lambert and Atkinson. The Bells limped home to retire the pits.
Positions remained the same on lap three with the leader’s advantage increasing to 2.7 seconds.
Lap four and the lead had increased to 3.952 seconds.
Harrison still held the lead at the end of the fifth lap now by 5.6 seconds from Lambert with Atkinson third. At the chequered flag Harrison’s advantage was 3.8 seconds.
Race three was the first leg of the Superbikes, with Michael Pearson taking pole who held the end at the end of the opening lap of eight from Ryan Farquhar and Dean Harrison.
Positions remained the same end of lap two the lead now three-quarters of a second.
Lap three and Pearson had increased his lead to 9/10ths of a second from Farquhar as Harrison held a comfortable third place, some five seconds ahead of Jamie Hamilton in fourth.
Half distance and Ryan had reduced the lead to 0.462 of a second to Michael.
A lap later and the gap had widened slightly to half a second.
Lap six, and the gap was reduced to four/tenths of a second as positions remained the same.
Lap seven and the lead was further reduced to three/tenths of a second, with Harrison eight seconds back in third and Jamie Hamilton a further five seconds adrift in fourth.
At the flag, it was Michael Pearson ahead of Ryan Farquhar and Dean Harrison. The advantage - 0.256 of a second.
Race four saw the first leg of the Ultra Lightweight 125’s and the 400cc machines. Daniel Frear got the hole shot ahead of James Cowton and Chris Palmer, at the end of the first lap of eight it was the same with the leader enjoying a 1 second advantage.
The lead had doubled a lap later, with Palmer having eight seconds over Bob Farrington.
Lap three and another second was added to the leader’s advantage.
Half distance and it was still Frear, Cowton and Palmer, with the lead now up to four seconds.
Lap five, and the positions remained static with the lead now up to 5.8 seconds.
Three – quarters distance, and for once the lead had not increased remaining static at 5.6 seconds.
At the chequered cloth it was Daniel Frear from James Cowton with Chris Palmer third.
Race 5, the first leg for the SuperTwins. No surprise that Ryan Farquhar held pole position and took the hole shot into the Hairpin at Mere.
At the end of the first lap it was Jamie Hamilton 0.381 of a second ahead of Ryan Farquhar with Ivan Lintin third.
A lap later it was Farquhar in the lead by 0.310 of a second from Hamilton and Lintin. Ryan also set a new lap record on the second lap at 77.444mph.
Lap three – and another lap record for Ryan now at 77.994mph with Jamie Coward also inside the previous record, with Ivan Lintin maintaining third place 2.5 seconds down.
At half distance, and Ryan upped the record to 78.262mph with positions remaining static.
Lap five, and the pace slowed a little as the lead increased to 2.1 31 seconds.
Lap six, and the lead had increased to 3.8 seconds and at the chequered flag it was Ryan Farquhar, Jamie Hamilton and Ivan Lintin.
Race six, Lightweights, another eight lapper, which saw Chris Palmer taking the hole shot on the Mannin Collections 250 Honda, who held a 4.64 second lead over Phil Harvey with David Guiney third.
Lap two and the gap had increased to over seven seconds and at the end of the third lap the lead was up to 9.5 seconds with positions remaining the same. Guiney was ten seconds down on second place man Harvey.
Lap four and the lead was now 10.482 seconds. Lap five and Palmer was easing off slightly, even so he extended his lead by another half second as Guiney maintained his third position some 23 seconds adrift of Harvey.
Three-quarter’s distance and Palmer opened the throttle once again and increased his advantage to 11.469 seconds. Lap seven, and the gap was over 12 seconds. Chris Palmer took the chequered flag from Phil Harvey with David Guiney third.
Race seven, the second leg of the Sidecars over six laps. Ian & Carl Bell got the hole shot and led into Mere Hairpin, then Greg Lambert retired with mechanical failure then the race was red flagged. Whilst there was no personal injury a few of the machines need some TLC, and the race was postponed to a later time in the day.
Race 8 was next the second heat of the 600 Supersport machines, once again over eight laps, which was won by Dean Harrison after a race long battle with Michael Pearson, with Daniel Frear third.
Race 9 the Non Qualifiers Race for 175 – 1300cc machines, over eight laps.
Stephen Cobbold had pole position, but it was Adam Sheriff who got the hole shot, from Tom Robinson and Adam Child.
At the end of the opening lap it was Adam Child who led by 1.2 seconds from Adam Sheriff and Tom Robinson.
Lap two, and it was still Chad by nearly 3 seconds with Robinson third a further 7/10ths of a second down. Lap three and the lead was up to 4.295 seconds.
Half distance, and Child’s lead was up to 6.282 seconds as the remaining places stayed static.
Three seconds was added to Adam Child’s lead on lap five as Tom Robinson moved into second and by the chequered flag the difference between Adam Child (first) and Adam Sheriff (second) was 15.416 seconds, Sheriff demoting Tom Robinson to third on the final circuit
Race 7, the second leg of the Sidecars has been postponed until Sunday to allow teams to re-fettle their machines.
That’s the action over for Saturday
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