Ryan Farquhar's superb start to the 2009 road race season showed no signs of slowing down on Saturday when he took two more wins and four podiums at the Tandragee 100. The KMR Kawasaki rider claimed victory in the Open and Supertwins races whilst he backed this up with a close second in the feature Superbike race and third in the Supersport 600cc encounter.
With good, dry conditions all around the 5.34-mile circuit, Farquhar opened his account for the day with a dominant victory in the Supertwins race, finishing a staggering one minute clear of his nearest rival whilst he also smashed the lap record with a lap of 94.974mph. He immediately followed this up with his second win of the day in the Open race. Having shadowed Keith Amor for the majority of the race, Farquhar made his move on the final lap when backmarkers came into play and he ran out victor by 2.75seconds.
In the Supersport 600cc race, Farquhar was embroiled in a titanic dice with Amor again, and also Michael Dunlop, with the lead exchanging hands on numerous occasions. Leading the trio on the final lap, Farquhar then ran in to a technical problem and he was powerless to respond and had to settle for third at the chequered flag, just over 5 seconds behind the race winner Dunlop. He bounced back strongly in the feature Superbike race where he again went head to head with Amor. There was little to choose between the dicing duo but at the end of the eight laps, Farquhar just missed out on the win in the dash to the line by the tiny margin of 0.275seconds!
"I'm well pleased with how I was riding today and it's been another great day. We had the ER6 Supertwin on the dyno and found another 4bhp so it made the wee bike so much sharper and the race went faultlessly. In the first Open race I had a terrific ding-dong with Keith and sat behind him for most of the race but when we came across some backmarkers along the jumps onthe final lap, he hesitated a wee bit and I was able to get through and hold on for a good win," said Farquhar.
"We had the new engine for the Supersport race and although we still have a little bit of work to do, I was extremely impressed with it. I led right up until the last lap but I think there was an electrical problem and the bike wouldn't rev above 14,000rpm so the other boys came by me like I was standing still! I rode hard though and I can't take anything away from the other two boys, they rode very well.
"In the big race, it was again a great battle with Keith and we were both giving it 100%. It was a good clean race and there was nothing between us anywhere so nothing was handed to anyone. Fair play to him, he just got the better of me but I couldn't have asked for any more. The Kawasaki was working brilliantly and the Dunlop tyres were awesome so I'm feeling extremely confident and encouraged as we head in to the International races. We've got a strong package so a big thank you to all my sponsors and I'm looking forward to giving them some good results at both the North West 200 and the TT."
Farquhar's next outing will be the International North West 200 with practice getting underway on Tuesday May 12th. The races take place on Saturday May 16th.
