Ryan Farquhar took his fifth North West 200 victory when he won Thursday evening’s Supertwins race, just seeing off a final lap challenge from SGS International/KMR Kawasaki team-mate Jeremy McWilliams.
Jamie Hamilton took third after Martin Jessopp was hit by a sixty second penalty for jumping the start.
“I’ve been motivated to do something like this,” said Farquhar afterwards. “It makes all the hours over the winter months all worth and I’ve put a lot of effort into developing the bike so to take my fifth NW200 win is like a dream come true. I knew Jeremy would have a go to get by but I wasn’t sure where - when he did, I was able to fight back straightaway and for the team to take a 1-2 is fantastic.”
Farquhar had led from the start but his lead was never more than one and a half seconds and McWilliams consistently closed in on the brakes. He grabbed the lead on the final lap going into Metropole but no sooner had he done so then he ran wide, allowing team boss Farquhar to dive back up the inside. The 39-year old used his prowess from Church Corner and Black Hill to pull away and, with a final lap of 107.938mph, he duly crossed the line to win by 1.2s.
Hamilton and Jessopp had been locked in battle throughout but whilst the latter named crossed the line in third, his debut podium was taken away by the penalty that dropped him back to seventh.
Christian Elkin came home in fourth with Derek McGee getting the better of Michael Sweeney on the final lap for fifth. James Coward, Darren James and Ian Morrell completed the top ten.
