Can Farquhar make it a clean-sweep at the 2010 TT?
After another record-breaking weekend, Ryan Farquhar is targeting a clean sweep at the 2010 Isle of Man TT – but he admits “that’s probably a bit too much to ask”.
The two-times TT winner dominated Saturday’s Cookstown 100 taking five wins from five starts – the first time anyone has won five Irish National road races in one day.
The stunning form shown by Farquhar in 2009, which carried him to a fourth Duke Road Race Rankings title, has continued into 2010. In the first meeting of the season, at Oliver’s Mount in Scarborough, the KMR Kawasaki racer took eight wins from eight starts.
Now Farquhar hopes to continue this form into the TT, and put the problems which have plagued him in recent years behind him.
He said:
“I couldn’t have asked for a better start to the season.”
“It would be nice to sweep the board at the North West and TT, but that’s probably a bit too much to ask! We’ll continue to work hard though and see what happens, you never know...!”
At Cookstown, Farquhar opened his account with a hard fought win in the 125cc race where, riding his KX450F, he managed to get the better of William Dunlop on the final lap for his first win of the day.
Next up was the Open race where, with a brilliant start, Farquhar was never headed and with a lead of 8 seconds at half race distance, he was able to ease off in the closing stages for a comfortable victory.
The Supersport 600cc race was another close encounter with Farquhar and Michael Dunlop never more than half a second apart during the entire race, but, when it mattered, Farquhar was in front to complete his hat trick with another fine win.
The 10-lap feature Cookstown 100 race was Farquhar’s fourth race of the day and he led the field round at the end of the first lap, under huge press from fellow TT winner Cameron Donald.
The dicing duo left the field behind and, with a new lap record, Donald closed right onto Farquhar’s back wheel, but the Dungannon man wasn’t to be bettered and set an absolute lap record on lap eight to edge away.
With two perfect last laps, Farquhar was able to control the race and take a superb win from Donald by 1.1 seconds, creating some more history later when he won the Super Twins race for his fifth win of the day.
To make it a perfect day for KMR Kawasaki, teammate Darren Hughes also won his two races to make it seven from seven for the team.
Farquhar said:
“It’s been a fantastic day and a really good weekend for the whole team. In the 125cc race I was down on speed to William, as I knew I would be, but I rode the wheels off the bike and when he hesitated going by a backmarker I saw an opportunity and grabbed it with both hands.”
“The wee bike is awesome and we’re already proving people wrong with what we can do - to get a road race win on what is essentially a motocross bike is awesome and these bikes could well be the future so I’d expect to see more and more of them on the grid in the years to come.”
“In the first Superbike race I got a great start and couldn’t quite believe the gap I pulled out - I thought they’d all pulled in or something - so just rode to my pit board, but the feature race was a lot harder. Cameron was out on his Superbike and I could hear him behind me all the time. I just concentrated on being on the right line all the time and with the bike working superbly, I was able to set the absolute lap record and pull away from him.”
“It’s a real testament to the Dunlop tyres too as I’ve used just one set for the practice and racing at both Scarborough and Cookstown - and there’s still some life in them!”
“Finally, there was the Super Twins race and I began by putting on a bit of a show for the crowd, but I thought that might have ended in disaster so I got my head down again and rode hard until the end.”
He added:
“With Darren winning also, we’ve taken seven wins between us, which must be some kind of record too, so with the success at Scarborough as well, I couldn’t have asked for a better start to the season. It would be nice to sweep the board at the North West and TT, but that’s probably a bit too much to ask! We’ll continue to work hard though and see what happens, you never know...!”