Ryan Farquhar ended his 2014 Classic TT campaign on Tuesday afternoon with a strong top six finish in the three-lap Formula One Classic TT race. Riding Roger Winfield’s Harris Yamaha, the Dungannon rider came through from a first lap ninth to take sixth for another excellent result around the 37 and ?-mile Mountain Course.
With the race having been delayed by more than 24 hours due to inclement weather, conditions were perfect when the race finally got underway at 2.45pm on Tuesday and an opening lap of 117.700mph saw Ryan slot into ninth place. A lap later, he’d moved up to eighth and with another 117mph lap on the third and final circuit, he was able to finish in a good sixth place.
The result more than made up for the disappointment of retiring from Saturday’s 500cc Classic TT race after an engine problem with Winfield’s 500cc Paton forced him to stop at Sulby Crossroads on the third lap. Prior to that, the race had been going well for Ryan with an opening lap of 109.826mph giving him a six second lead over Ian Lougher. However, with the engine gradually getting slower, it all came to an end one and a half laps later.
Meanwhile, at the beginning of the fortnight, Ryan’s KMR Kawasaki team had also enjoyed good fortune at the Dundrod 150 races with Connor Behan and Keith Amor taking second and third respectively in the Supertwins race.
Ryan Farquhar: “I was pleased to get a good, top six finish in today’s race and end the festival on a good note. The bike’s pretty new and Roger’s still carrying out a lot of development work with it but after a few issues in practice, we fitted a new engine for the race and it worked dead on in the race. I struggled a bit with my wrist as the older bikes don’t allow it to have as much movement like the modern bikes so it was quite sore but we got the bike home. I was the first air-cooled bike to finish and there’s still a good few things we can improve so we’ll be back next year to give it another go.”
“It made up for the disappointment of Saturday’s race and I was really disappointed to have broken down on the Paton. It was the race I was looking forward to the most but as soon as I left the line the bike felt flat and it never ran like it was capable of. It wouldn’t pull the gearing and got slower and slower which was a real shame as with John (McGuinness) going out and Ian (Lougher) being hit with a time penalty, if the bike had kept going we were well placed to win. It wasn’t meant to be but we’ll be back stronger.”
Ryan will be back in action at Oliver’s Mount, Scarborough for the International Gold Cup meeting on September 13-14.
Pictures by Stephen Davison – Pacemaker Press International.
