Strong day at Skerries for Farquhar
Ryan Farquhar ensured his excellent 2009 season continued on Saturday when he took a win and three seconds at the Skerries 100 road races. Held on the outskirts of Dublin, Farquhar took victory in the Supertwins race and took close seconds in the Open, Supersport 600cc and Grand Final events whilst he also claimed a new outright lap record at 109.521mph.
First up for Ryan was the Open race and it was another battle royale with Keith Amor. Ryan led in the early stages before Amor took over on the third lap and the pair were still together when the red flag came out on the sixth but with the race result taken at the end of four laps, Ryan had to settle for second, just over half a second behind Amor. The Supersport 600cc race followed and a rain shower made conditions extremely tricky whilst a red flag after 3 laps meant it would be a two-part race. Ryan led the second part from start to finish but Michael Dunlop, leader on the first 3 laps, sat on Ryan's back wheel and he got the verdict at the end of 6 laps, Ryan again taking second, this time only 0.281s adrift.
The Supertwins race was another close affair but this time Ryan emerged the victor and he then went into the Grand Final hopeful of a second win. It was another titanic battle between Ryan and Amor with the duo smashing the lap record repeatedly although Amor was again able to hold on for the win, his margin of victory at the end of 9 titanic laps just 0.421s. Ryan did have the considerable consolation of claiming the outright lap record though with a new all-time high of 109.521mph.
Talking afterwards Ryan said: "It's been a good day today but we just didn't quite have the speed to get the better of Keith. He's riding fantastically well and has very good Superbike so hats off to him and whilst I was able to get alongside him on a couple of occasions, I just couldn't make a pass. We've got the Superstock bike working brilliantly but I was losing 3 to 4 lengths on Keith's Superbike along the straights which meant I was having to make it all up on the brakes and that made it hard."
"I had a great dice with Michael Dunlop in the 600cc race but in the second part he knew what he had to do and sat behind me, getting the verdict on corrected time. For the Grand Final, I put in a new rear tyre and gave it 110% but, like I say, Keith's riding really well and he came out on top today although I did have the consolation of the new, outright lap record. I've taken a win and three seconds and am well pleased with how I'm riding so we'll head to the next race to see what we can do."
Ryan's next outing will be at the Walderstown road races this next weekend, the races taking place on July 11th/12th.
Words: Phil Wain - Freelance PR