Mr Tayto joins top road racer Ryan Farquhar, Thomas Hutchinson and Neill McConnell
to launch the Around-A-Pound Tandragee 100 at Tayto Castle in Co Armagh

Next month’s Around-A-Pound Tandragee 100 won’t be for the faint-hearted as a host of Irish road racing’s top names lock horns around the exhilarating 5.4-mile Co Armagh circuit.

Final details of the event were announced at the official launch of the race at the Navan Centre in Armagh on Tuesday.

Ryan Farquhar will make his return to the 1000cc class at an Irish road race for the first time since he won the Grand Final at Skerries in 2012 and has been boosted by a terrific result at the Spring Cup meeting at Oliver’s Mount, where the 39-year-old finished as the runner-up behind Tyco BMW’s Guy Martin in the first leg on his KMR/SGS Kawasaki ZX-10R Superstock machine on Saturday.

He opted to skip the majority of Sunday’s races to avoid risking injury after the weather turned for the worse and is now focused on Tandragee.

“It was that cold on Sunday, my hands went numb after three laps and I couldn’t feel the handlebars,” Farquhar said.

“When it’s like that, it’s so easy to make a mistake and for other riders to do the same so I opted out of the remaining races to head home and start preparing all the bikes for Tandragee.

“I’ll be looking to move things forward with the bikes and be that bit closer to where I want to be next time out.”

Farquhar is also building a Kawasaki Superbike but is set to rely on his Superstock machine at Tandragee on May 2, where he will renew his rivalry with old sparring partner Keith Amor.

The hard-riding Scotsman is also making his comeback in the Superbike class in 2015 and has switched to BMW machinery under the Rig Deluge banner for the feature classes.

Amor also has a brace of World Supersport-spec 600cc Hondas and will be quietly optimistic of kicking off his season with a few rostrum results at Tandragee as he warms-up for the North West 200 and Isle of Man TT.

The experienced duo could have their work cut out though with Jamie Hamilton on the Cookstown/B.E. Racing machines brimming with confidence for the year ahead.

Mullingar’s Derek McGee is also entered on Wilson Craig’s Hondas while William Dunlop will start as the pre-race favourite in the Supersport class on the Chris Dowd/Ivan Curran Racing Yamaha R6.

The entry also includes Michael Sweeney, Davy Morgan, Shaun Anderson, Sam Wilson, Seamus Elliott, Paul Robinson and Cheshire’s Connor Behan, while former Grand Prix winner Jeremy McWilliams is set to team up with Farquhar to ride Roger Winfield’s Harris Yamahas in the Forgotten Era class as he makes his debut at Tandragee.

However, Gareth Keys is ruled out after a heavy crash at Scarborough.

Roads close at 10am on Saturday, May 2 for racing with practice taking place on Friday, May 1 from 3pm.

Kyle White