Ryan Farquhar set the fastest lap of a wet second Supertwins session at the North West 200 this morning with a lap of 98.975mph with team-mate Jeremy McWilliams just three seconds further back on 98.070mph. The duo circulated together for half of the session with team leader Farquhar no doubt showing McWilliams some of the lines around the 8.9-mile circuit although conditions could be seen with the fact that Farquhar was some 17 seconds slower than the fastest lap set on Tuesday afternoon.
It was McWilliams who set the early pace at 96.237mph ahead of team leader Farquhar on 95.969mph but midway through the session, Simon Andrews moved to the top of the timesheets with a lap of 97.138mph. Michael Rutter, on a third KMR Kawasaki, moved up to second at 96.710mph but most riders were calling in to the pits to place some duct tape over the radiators in order to try and get some more hear into the engines.
In the final third of the session, McWilliams went back to the top of the times just ahead of Farquhar but another lap saw the roles reversed and Ryan's lap of 98.975mph was enough to keep him fastest. Andrews stayed in third with Rutter, Adrian Archibald and Jamie Hamilton on the fourth KMR Kawasaki moving up to sixth. Despite the wet weather, there was still some impressive speeds through the speed traps with Rutter and William Davison leading the way at 143mph followed by Farquhar and Andrews at 142mph. One man who did improve in the session was Ian Lougher who failed to qualify on Tuesday so his lap of 94.050mph will at least see him line up on the grid.
The 50-minute session was ended five minutes early due to oil being dropped around the University section of the course but with Thursday's session being wet, the grid will be formed from the times set on Tuesday night though and so it will be Archibald that lines up in pole position with Rutter and James Hillier joining him on the front row. Farquhar, Hamilton and Davison will be on the second row.
