Ryan Farquhar battled his way through the difficult weather conditions at the Armoy 'Race of Legends' Road Races on Saturday to add two more wins to his haul for the season. The KMR Kawasaki rider took victory in the Supertwins and 450cc races whilst also claiming three more podiums thus ensuring another successful day's racing.
Conditions changed throughout the day as the rain came and went but Ryan opened his account with a comfortable victory in the Moto 450cc race, which was held in wet weather. The rain worsened for the Supersport 600cc race and after two warm up laps, the riders spoke to the officials and, with lots of standing water, the race was delayed.
When it resumed, Ryan grabbed the holeshot and led for the opening three laps before the rain returned and so signalled to the officials, who had agreed to stop the race if conditions became unrideable. Michael Dunlop passed Ryan just before the line and, with another lap being completed, it was he was awarded the victory when the race was eventually stopped.
Next up for Ryan was the first Superbike race and, with conditions still wet, he opted to take out his 600cc machine once more. Despite being at a major disadvantage against the 1000cc machines, he led for the first two laps before being overhauled by Dunlop and Guy Martin but third was an excellent result given the horsepower deficit. Meanwhile, team-mate Jamie Hamilton took a solid eighth and the duo then went head to head in the Supertwins race. There was little between the two but it all went wrong when Hamilton tried to out-brake his team leader and he crashed out. That enabled Ryan to take the win from Adrian Archibald and Michael Sweeney.
The Grand Final was Ryan's last race of the day and he again went head to head with Dunlop, leading in the early stages before his younger rival found a way through. There was nothing separating the two until the closing few laps when backmarkers came into play and it was enough to allow Michael to edge out a gap and so Ryan had to settle for second at the chequered flag.
Speaking later, a pleased Ryan said; "It's been a challenging day with the ever-changing weather conditions but they improved as the day wore on and we all got some good races in. It was really wet at the beginning of the day, especially in the 600cc race where there was that much surface water, it simply wasn't safe to continue. The officials gave it some time to dry up and said if it started raining again, raise our hands. I did that and although the race win eventually went to Michael, I had no qualms finishing second on a race decided on safety grounds. With conditions still being far from ideal, I decided to take the 600 out for the Superbike race and I was pleased with third given the fact I was up against 1000cc bikes.
"The Supertwins race was going well for the team until Jamie crashed and I was lucky not to get caught up with him. Luckily he was ok but it's a real shame as the bike is pretty badly bent and there might not be enough time to get it repaired for the Ulster. I managed to hold on to the win and that just left the Grand Final where I had a great battle with Michael. The Superbike's about 95% there now and I'm just struggling to get the engine braking sorted but it was a real good race. It was a just a pity backmarkers came into play at the end as it would have been nice to have gone into the final lap with it all still to play for but I'm happy enough. I'm happy with the bike and I'm definitely going in the right direction so, overall, it's been a solid day."
