Keith Amor’s preparations for the International road racing season continued at the weekend with the RigDeluge® Road Racing rider contesting the Tandragee 100 road races and although weather conditions severely affected the meeting, it was another valuable shakedown for the Falkirk ace.

Although he contested the meeting in 2014 on the Supersport and Lightweight machines, it was Keith’s first time at the venue on a 1000cc machine since 2009 and he had both the RigDeluge® Road Racing 1000cc BMW Superstock and 600cc Honda machines at his disposal this time around, qualifying in sixth and fourth respectively for the races.

With heavy rain forecast for Saturday’s feature race day, the organisers brought forward the Open race to the Friday evening and, fifth at the end of the opening lap, it proved to be a lonely race for Keith as a couple of small moments led him to exercising caution over valour. With a fastest lap of 104.234mph around the 5.34-mile challenging course, he duly brought the bike home for a solid fifth place, gaining valuable data for the set-up of the bike prior to the North West 200 and TT.

As predicted, Saturday dawned cold and wet and with no let up in the weather, Keith and the team reluctantly opted out of the remainder of the meeting, missing the Superbike and Supersport races and preferring instead to return home and continue preparing the bikes.

Keith Amor: “It’s such a shame the weather was what it was and I really feel for the organisers and all the fans that turned out in force. The Tandragee is a superb circuit and the ideal place for getting bikes set up for the North West and TT and although conditions meant I didn’t get in as many laps as I would like, it was nonetheless a productive meeting for myself and the team.”

“We’re still getting used to the electronics on the BMW and whilst I obviously wanted to stick with the boys at the front in Friday evening’s Superbike race,, I had a couple of small moments and so brought the bike home for a solid fifth place. We’re learning each time we go out so know what we need to do to iron out these little issues and will be working flat out now to get everything 100% for the North West.”

“I had a few issues with the Supersport bike jumping out of gear during practice and the plan was to fit a new engine in time for Saturday’s race but the weather was terrible with heavy rain and a temperature of only six degrees so we took an executive decision and decided we’d be better off heading back home to start preparing the bikes for the Internationals. It’s the most important time of the year for me and we want to have the best chance possible for success at the North West and TT so we’ll be working hard now to ensure that’s exactly what happens.”

Keith now heads to the first International road race of the year, the North West 200, which links the Northern Ireland towns of Portstewart, Coleraine and Portrush. Practice for the event gets underway on Tuesday 12th May and continues on Thursday 14th May with races taking place that same evening and on Saturday 16th May.

Picture by Stephen Davison – Pacemaker Press International.