Four more for Farquhar

Ryan Farquhar’s dominance of the 2009 Irish national road races continued at the Mid Antrim 150 on Saturday with yet another four wins.

The KMR Kawasaki took his fourth successive four-timer as he claimed the Superbike, Grand Final, Supersport 600cc and Supertwins races to make it an astounding 49 wins for the season.

The opening Superbike race saw Farquhar get his day off in the best possible fashion when he took a commanding 6.4second win. He then took fifth place in a rare 250cc outing before getting back to winning ways in the Supersport 600cc race.

The race was re-started over  three laps after Michael Dunlop crashed out but in the re-run, it was William Dunlop who pushed Ryan all the way, his margin of victory this time a much closer 1.7s.

In the Supertwins, Farquhar was in control throughout the four laps, taking a convincing win by almost 20s and that just left the Grand Final.

Leading from start to finish on his ZX-10R Kawasaki Superstock machine, he took his fourth win from five starts by over 7s and he also set the fastest lap of the day at 106.72mph.

The four wins also moved him on to a career total of 114, just five behind the legendary Joey Dunlop’s all-time high of 119.

Farquhar said, “It’s been quite a tricky day due to the weather and although the rain held off during the races, apart from a few spots here and there, the track was slippy throughout as a lot of dirt had been dragged on to the circuit.

“I opted to run intermediate tyres all day and they were definitely the right choice as they allowed me to get my head down in the early laps and break away.”

“I just got my head down from the start and the races went perfectly for me, the only real drama was in the Supersport race when firstly Michael, then William Dunlop pushed me hard but I was able to hold them off and take the win.

“With all the mud everywhere, we all had to make the best of a bad situation and the club did a very good job in what were very trying conditions and it was really good to be back racing at the Mid Antrim.”

The next Irish nationals are the newly-introduced Armoy Road Races on Saturday, August 8.