North West 200: Farquhar claims supertwins victory

Ryan Farquhar claimed an historic victory in the first ever North West 200 Supertwins race this evening (Thursday).

Ireland’s top road racer led the four-lap race from start-to-finish in the Vauxhall-backed race to cross the line 2.94s ahead of former GP rider Jeremy McWilliams with Michael Rutter third – all three riders on Farquhar built Kawasakis.

Farquhar has been instrumental in the development of the Supertwins class in Ireland and it’s his hard work that has also seen the TT adopt a Twins race on the mountain course this year for the first time.

He said: “This is unreal. I always knew the potential of these bikes and to come here and have the likes of Jeremy, Michael and Jamie (Hamilton) riding for me was a lot of pressure but also an honour.”

It was McWilliams’ North West 200 debut and he said: “This is a dream come true for me and a dream come true for Ryan. I never thought I’d be able to run this close to the front. I’ve really enjoyed it and I’ll be back if Ryan invites me to ride his bike again.”

The NW200 race stated on a wet track but it was drying throughout the four laps. Farquhar and McWilliams were on wets but Rutter opted for dry tyres and rode a masterful race in treacherous early going to overcome James Hillier (Pr1mo Bournemouth Kawasaki) and Adrian Archibald (McKinstry Kawasaki).

Rutter’s last lap established a new lap record for the class. Farquhar’s fourth entry, Jamie Hamilton – another NW200 rookie – finished sixth.

MCN’s Adam Child survived a scary moment in wet qualifying when he hit a kerb to finish 24th in his Supertwins debut, riding his Ken Urwin Motorcycles Kawasaki. He ran a stock engine for the NW200, saving his tuned ER6 motor for next week’s TT debut.