Ryan Farquhar opened his Irish road racing season in fantastic style on Saturday when he again dominated the Cookstown 100 road races. The KMR Kawasaki rider was in scintillating form around the 2.1-mile Orritor circuit and took four wins during the day including the feature Superbike encounter, extending his record number of wins at the event to 27. Indeed, it was a great day all round for the team with Jamie Hamilton finishing in secnd place, behind Farquhar in the Supertwins race and also claiming two top ten results in the Superbike races.
The meeting didn't get off to the greatest of starts for Farquhar though as an incident in Friday evening's practice session saw him catch his knee on a sandbag and be pulled off the side of the bike. As he fought to keep control, he also clipped a Recticel barrier and not only did he hurt his knee he also bent the bottom yoke of the bike, his 2009 Superstock machine. Fortunately, it didn't stop him from racing on Saturday and, once the organisers had resolved a dispute with a local farmer, the day got off to a good start with a solid second place in the opening Superbike race behind Guy Martin.
It would prove to be his only defeat of the day and after taking a comfortable win, and new lap record, in the Moto 450 race, he led from start to finish in the Supersport 600cc race to win from William Dunlop by 4.1s. Next up was the main event of the day, the Cookstown 100 Superbike race, and the early stages saw Ryan go head to head with Martin once more although this time Farquhar led the way. At half race distance his Suzuki-mounted rival outbraked himself and that allowed Farquhar to complete his hat-trick and take another four second win, this time ahead of Michael Dunlop.
The day then ended for Ryan with another start to finish victory, and another lap record, this time in the Supertwins race where his winning margin over team-mate Hamilton was 7.5s, another one-two for the team after the same result at Scarborough the previous weekend. Hamilton also took two ninth place finishes in the two Superbike races thus meaning it was another excellent circuit debut for the 21-year old.
"What can I say, it's been another great day and everything's gone to plan so it's a fantastic start to the Irish road racing season. I could have done without Friday's wee mishap but it didn't create any issue for race day and we started the day with a good second. I was slightly disappointed though as there were yellow flags being shown where the farmer had the dispute with the organisers about his land and it was here where Guy overtook me so that was a shame as the rest of us were all obeying the flags," said the Dungannon man.
"I then got stuck for a bit behind William and by the time I'd got by him, Guy was too far ahead for me to be able to do anything about him. The 450cc race was faultless and then with a great start in the 600cc race I was never headed. William came by off the line but he overshot the first corner and after that I never saw anyone again."
"I got a really good start in the main event and had Guy right on my tail for a few laps. He tried to overtake on about lap 5 but I was braking as late as possible so when he came up the inside, I knew he was never going to make it. After that, I was able to bring the bike home and it's great to beat all the Superbikes once more.
"I decided to ride my '09 Superstock bike as I know it inside out and I feel so comfortable on it that I can put it where I want to out on track. I've won tons of races on it and it never lets me down so we'll get plenty more races out of it this season. Jamie had yet another great day too and he's impressing everyone with his results, not just on the Supertwin but also on the big bike. He's been a great addition to the team and it's been a great day all round for KMR Kawasaki. There's not much time now before Tandragee so there's a lot of work to be done on the bikes whilst I also hope to be out on my Superbike for the first time this year and get a good run on it before the North West 200."
