Totally distraught following the death of his uncle and good friend Trevor Ferguson in the Supertwin Manx Grand Prix, Ryan Farquhar has announced that he is to quit road racing.

"I’m finished with racing," he said. "I’ve been at it a long time and I’ve lost a lot of friends, but it’s different when it comes to your own doorstep," said the Dungannon ace who just hours before the incident had won the Senior Classic event for the fifth time.

"This is a sport I love but I can’t risk putting my family through something like that any more – I have to think of them. I’m absolutely gutted.’

Farquhar is particularly saddened that he’d offered one of his own KMR Kawasakis to Ferguson to ride in the race. He was holding onto second place at the time the tragic accident occurred at the Nook, nearing the end of the second circuit.

His two daughters, Aimee and Jane, were both at the meeting. One of them was in his pit at the time the incident occurred.

In a cruel twist of irony, another Dungannon competitor, Nigel Moore, went on to win the ill-fated race on a second of Farquhar’s KMR machines.

Farquhar, who has a total of 44 race wins to his credit in the Isle of Man, covering the TT, Manx Grand Prix and Southern 100, has also notched up 199 Irish road race wins and had been hoping to crack 200 at the forthcoming Killalane meeting in the Republic of Ireland.