Michael Laverty, so often the king of the Bishopscourt Circuit, won two out of three Superbike races, but unfortunately he couldn't add to his tally of five wins in the Sunflower race in somewhat horrendous conditions. He had been shadowing brother John and Michael Rutter at the front of the field, before a massive front wheel slide on the saturated County Down circuit forced him to settle for a strong finish in fourth place.
Ian Lowry was prolific in the Supersport classes taking a brace of wins, and like Laverty in the Superbike races; he was virtually unchallenged in either encounter on his GSX-R600 Suzuki. He also seized the opportunity to ride one of the team's GSX-R1000 Suzukis in the Superbike class and claimed three top-eight finishes. Michael Laverty:
"It's always good to come home and show what we can do in front of the local fans. My GSX-R1000 Superbike was faultless over the weekend, as we showed in the two dry races. In the wet I had a big front end slide which put paid to any hopes of a third win, but with Ian taking both Supersport wins, I think we did a good job for Relentless Suzuki at the Sunflower. A big end of season thank you must go to everyone in the team and also to our sponsors for all their support this season."
Ian Lowry:
"I'm pretty happy with my performances this weekend on the Supersport Suzuki but I would have liked a little bit more from my Superbike rides. It's never easy coming in and riding a one-off race against BSB and World Superbike regulars but I enjoyed the experience and got one over on a couple of them! The team have worked very hard this year so I'd like to offer my thanks to Philip, Hector and everyone involved with our team. I'm now off to China to lend my support to Bruce and Cameron at the Macau Grand Prix."
Philip Neill - Team Principal:
"Both guys performed unbelievably well at the weekend on Relentless Suzuki machinery and to take four wins from five starts is very pleasing. Michael Laverty showed his class in the Superbike races dominating from the very first practice session and only for that front wheel slide in the wet, he could well have made it three wins from three starts. "It's also great to have kept our Supersport record intact with 8 wins from 8 starts in the past four years. Ian was very impressive on our GSX-R600 Suzuki and he also did an admirable job in the Superbike class with some impressive finishes. "It's the last race of the year for us - apart from Macau - so I'd like to thank everyone in our team for the effort in 2008. I'd also like to thank our loyal sponsor for all their continued support this year."
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