Top seven for Farquhar in Supersport TT Races
Ryan Farquhar finished sixth and seventh in the two Supersport races, held on Tuesday and Wednesday, at the Isle of Man TT races. Tuesday's races also saw Ryan set his best ever lap on both the 1000cc and 600cc machine and went some way to ease the disappointment of retiring from Tuesday evening's Superstock race.
In the first Supersport race on Tuesday morning, Ryan completed the first lap in fourth place with a lap in excess of 124mph although by lap 2 he had been relegated to sixth. He kept pushing hard and with a final lap of 124.568mph, his fastest ever on a 600, he maintained the position all the way to the end of the four laps in what was the fastest 600cc race seen at the TT. Later in the evening, Ryan was back out in the Superstock race and with a personal best lap of the Mountain Course, 127.651mph, he completed the first lap in sixth place. However, just as he had hoped to climb up the leaderboard, he ran out of petrol at Cronk ny Mona towards the end of the second lap.
Wednesday's 4-lap Supersport race was delayed by 3 and a quarter hours due to rain on the west part of the circuit and when it did get underway at 2pm, the roads were still very wet. A strong start by Ryan saw him slot into second at the first timing point although the changes he had made to the machine after Tuesday weren't working as he would have liked and he was down in fifth at the end of the first lap. He slipped back to ninth on the second lap but he managed to work his way back up to 7th at the end of the race for another top-seven finish.
Speaking later Ryan said: "It's been a tough few days and although not the results I was looking for, I'm pleased to have got a couple of finishes under my belt. We changed the mapping of the 600cc engine but didn't have time to put it in the dyno and we'd gone slightly the wrong way. It was really damp through Glen Helen and I had a few slides and one minute there was grip, the next there wasn't so it was really tricky. I rode as hard as I could but when the track dried up I knew I'd slip back so I just brought the back home."
"I'm not sure why we ran out of fuel in the Superstock race as we were running the same bike and the same tank as last year. I did go slightly faster than 2008 but it started to run out at Creg ny Baa and although I rolled off, it cut out totally at Hillberry so it was a disappointing end as I felt strong out there. We've got a new engine in for the Senior race so let's hope the week finishes on a high note."
Ryan's final race comes on Friday where he will be back out on the Alf's Motorcycles Kawasaki in the 6-lap Senior.
Words: Phil Wain - Freelance PR