Dungannon's Ryan Farquhar retained his Cock O’ The North trophy at Oliver’s Mount in superb fashion on Sunday when he pulled off a thrilling last lap manoeuvre over long time race leader Michael Pearson.

The KMR Kawasaki shadowed his rival for the majority of the race before getting the better of his fellow countryman at Mountside Hairpin to keep the trophy for another year. With two more wins over the course of the two days, it was another successful weekend of road racing for Farquhar.

Conditions on Saturday at Scarborough were dry but cool and overcast with Farquhar’s first outing coming in the 600cc race although this was soon halted and pushed back to later in the day. So, the first Superbike race was his first proper race and he immediately took the holeshot on the ZX-10R Superstock machine.

He retained the lead until just after half race distance when Pearson overhauled him and although there was little between the duo, Farquhar was unable to find a way by and he had to settle for second spot. Next up was the re-scheduled 600cc race and another good start saw Farquhar take the lead but it was short-lived as problems with the Supersport bike saw him retire just a few corners later. However, he ended the day positively with a dominant win in the Supertwins race.

Sunday saw similar conditions around the woodland venue and with no time to repair the 600cc bike, Farquhar was first out in the Superbike race where it was Pearson who this time led at the end of the first lap. Farquhar sat behind him until he hit the front at the end of lap five on the entry to Farm Bends but Pearson wasn’t to be denied and retook the lead with a lap to go, holding on for the win by just 0.215s although Farquhar did claim the fastest lap of the weekend at 82.956mph.

The feature Cock O’ The North race was next and although it was due to be held over 10 laps an incident saw it red flagged and ultimately re-started over 8 laps. It was again Pearson who held sway as the riders wound their way round the narrow, tree-lined circuit. The BMW rider looked like he had the race win sewn up but Farquhar was always within striking distance and a superb late-braking attempt at Mountside Hairpin on the 8th and final lap saw him take the victory. He then rounded off his weekend with a hard fought victory over Ivan Lintin in the second Supertwins race.

“It’s been a bit of an up and down weekend but I’m over the moon to have rounded it off with a win in the Cock o’ the North race and take the trophy for a second successive year. I’d had to give second best to Michael in the previous two Superbike race and I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to get the better of him as he was riding really well whilst I was constantly making changes to the bike to try and improve the handling," said Farquhar.

"The bike doesn’t seem to work the same at any circuit and just when you think you’ve found a good set-up, you have to start again but I’m starting to understand it a lot more now so we’re making progress.”

“I was making changes all weekend and the bike was at its best for the main race so I sat behind Michael and waited to make my move although he was riding very defensively so it was tough going but I squeezed through on the final lap to take a good win.

"Ivan Lintin pushed me hard in the two Supertwins race but I managed to open up a gap towards the end of each race to take two good wins there and the only disappointment was the 600. We had a few problems in practice when it refused to fire up and although I got a good start in the race it felt like it was going to seize so I pulled the clutch in and coasted to a halt.

"I’ve got some work to do now to sort it out as we don’t know if it’s an electrical or mechanical problem but when I get home I’ll strip the bike down and make sure I’m all ready for the next race.”