MOTORSPORT: Five star Farquhar lights up Cookstown

KMR Kawasaki star Ryan Farquhar was quite simply in a class of his own as he hammered the opposition into submission at last Saturday's Royal Hotel Cookstown 100.

The 34-year-old won all five races he entered to become the first rider to notch five national successes in one day.

He produced a dazzling demonstration of race craft genius that has become Farquhar's seemingly impregnable defence and the brand of a cunning operator who has his trade down to a fine art.

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Right now, there seems to be no stopping the Killyman maestro, who amassed 61 victories in 2009.

Already, that feat seems under threat as Farquhar has accumulated 13 wins from the Scarborough and Cookstown meetings, but he is not thinking that far down the line.

"It hasn't really sunk in yet, getting eight wins out of eight at Scarborough and then five from five on Saturday," he said.

"It's fantastic, but I'm just taking each race week by week and I'm not thinking about beating the 61 wins I got last year. I don't want to jinx myself – I want to enjoy myself and have fun and hopefully the wins will come."

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Farquhar's first triumph on Saturday was achieved in the 125GP/Moto 450 race, when he shadowed William Dunlop for much of the race before making his move on the final lap to claim his maiden Irish road race victory on his new KX450F Kawasaki single.

In the Open 'A' race, Farquhar established a commanding lead and was never seriously challenged on his Superstock ZX-10 machine as he took the honours ahead of Relentless TAS Suzuki's Cameron Donald by 6.8 seconds, with Michael Dunlop third on the Street Sweep/Robinson Honda.

Adrian Archibald, Derek Sheils and William Dunlop on Chris Dowd's Suzuki completed the top six.

The Co Tyrone man faced a stiffer examination of his credentials in the Supersport 600 race, when he was hounded all the way by Michael Dunlop on the Street Sweep Yamaha throughout the 10-lapper.

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Try as he might, Dunlop was unable to find a way past and at the line Farquhar's advantage was almost three seconds, with William Dunlop, Donald, Michael Pearson on the Carryduff Forklifts Kawasaki and southerner John Walsh the first six.

Farquhar added: "Michael (Dunlop) pushed me hard all the way in the 600cc race and I had to ride really hard.

"There wasn't much between us and he was giving his all, so it wasn't a handy win. I was able to up the pace a bit and our bikes seemed to be pretty even on speed – it may have looked easy, but I was riding hard.”

In the feature Cookstown 100 Superbike Farquhar was forced to ride the wheels of his big Kawasaki by Aussie Donald, who pressurised the Ulsterman for the duration of the race.

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The pace was so hot that the lap record tumbled on the eighth lap, with Farquhar setting a new record for the 2.1-mile Orator course of 90.811mph.

Donald, competing in his first national road race for three years, couldn’t make a move stick, but was only a second behind Farquhar at the chequered flag, with Michael Dunlop a massive 17 seconds adrift of the leaders in third.

“I have never been ultra successful here at Cookstown with its stop/start nature, preferring the fast and flowing circuits, but I did take Ryan Farquhar all the way in that last Superbike race,” Donald said.

“He’s the man on form and I won’t take that away from him, but I sat back and watched for a few laps and did think I’d the measure of him.

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“Unfortunately I made a small mistake coming onto the last lap and those 50 yards made the difference between winning and finishing second.”

Pearson, Archibald and Sheils filled the leading positions behind the top three.

Farquhar’s historic five-timer was complete when he won the 650 Supertwins event in dominant style from Czech Republic rider Michal Dokoupil and John Burrows.

William Dunlop was victorious in the 250cc race on Noel Wray’s Honda, with brother Michael second and Davy Morgan from Saintfield third.

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Alan Bonner and Darren Hughes (KMR Kawasaki) were the respective winners of the Senior and Junior Support races.

With the unfortunate cancellation of the Tandragee 100, which had been scheduled for this weekend, the next road race on the calendar is the Relentless International North West 200 on May 15.

Race results:

RESULTS: Cookstown 100 Superbike – 1 R Farquhar, 2 C Donald, 3 M Dunlop, 4 M Pearson, 5 A Archibald, 6 D Sheils. New lap record: Farquhar 90.811mph.

Open ‘A’ – 1 R Farquhar, 2 C Donald, 3 M Dunlop, 4 A Archibald, 5 D Sheils, 6 W Dunlop. Fastest lap: Farquhar 89.800mph.

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Supersport – 1 R Farquhar, 2 M Dunlop, 3 W Dunlop, 4 C Donald, 5 M Pearson, 6 J Walsh. Fastest lap: Farquhar 88.450mph

250GP/400cc – 1 W Dunlop, 2 M Dunlop, 3 D Morgan, 4 W Hamilton, 5 B Davidson, 6 D Burns. Fastest lap: W Dunlop 83.330mph

125GP/Moto450 – 1 R Farquhar (Kawasaki 450), 2 W Dunlop, 3 N Moore, 4 P Robinson, 5 N McWhirter, 6 S Dunlop. Fastest lap: Dunlop 79.785mph

Senior Support – 1 A Bonner, 2 D Yeomans, 3 S Anderson. Fastest lap: Bonner 83.075mph

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Junior Support – 1 D Hughes, 2 S Garton, 3 D Howard. Fastest lap: Hughes 75.177mph

Supertwins 650 – 1 R Farquhar, 2 M Dokoupil, 3 J Burrows, 4 D Hughes, 5 A Farrell, 6 M Sweeney. New lap record - Farquhar 81.584mph

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