Ryan Farquhar and the SGS International/KMR Kawasaki team enjoyed a successful day of racing at the Armoy Road Races on Saturday with the Dungannon ace taking victory in the Supertwins race and Adam McLean doing the same in the Junior Support event.

With conditions around the 3-mile circuit perfect all day, Ryan opened his account for the day with a solid sixth on his Kawasaki ZX-10R in the 7-lap Superbike race, despite not feeling over comfortable with the set-up of the machine. It was a different story in the Supertwins race though where, after taking pole position, he took a near two-second win over Derek McGee and also claimed a new lap record of 98.106mph.

Team-mate, and newcomer to the circuit, Darren James had a good ride into tenth but there was disappointment for former Grand Prix winner Jeremy McWilliams who jumped the start and pulled into retire as a result of the subsequent penalty.

Meanwhile, Adam McLean made his debut for the team, contesting the Junior Support race on another of the SGS International/KMR Kawasaki 650cc Supertwin machines and, aided by the fastest lap of the race at 93.037mph, he took an excellent win by over five seconds.

With the win under his belt, Ryan opted out of the feature Superbike race and celebrated with the whole of the SGS International/KMR Kawasaki team on their successful day.

Ryan Farquhar said: “It’s been a good day for the team and a good Armoy event once more so we’re all pretty happy right now. I’ve chatted to Adam a few times this season and we agreed to run him on the bike to give SGS International a bit more exposure and he gave us the perfect start to the day with an excellent win. In the feature Twin race, it all went perfectly for me and Darren too but, unfortunately, Jeremy made a bit of a mess of the start and with all the time lost due to the penalty he received he retired from the race."

“In the first big bike race, I’d qualified sixth and made a good start to slot into fourth in the early stages. I wasn’t 100% happy with the set-up of the bike though and it wasn’t comfortable running at that pace so I eased the pace slightly and dropped back into sixth which was where I ended up. I made a few changes to the bike for the Grand Final but after Adam’s win and then my own win, we’d had a good weekend so decided to leave it there and celebrate in the SGS International hospitality. Like I say, it was a good meeting for us so thanks as always to all my loyal sponsors.”

Ryan will now turn his attentions to the Isle of Man Classic TT where he’ll ride Roger Winfield’s 500cc Paton and 1100cc Harris Yamaha in the 500cc and Formula One races respectively. Practice around the Mountain Course gets underway on Saturday August 22nd.

Photo - Ryan celebrates after winning the Supertwin race at Armoy.  Courtesy of Stephen Davison – Pacemaker Press International.