Cock O’ The North; Sat 10th July

Clear blue skies, wall to wall sunshine greeted the early arrivals at Oliver’s Mount on Saturday for the first of two days ‘pure’ road racing at the annual Cock o’the North Road Races.

Practice commenced promptly at 9.00am, which is what everyone has come to expect from the organising Auto 66 Club, followed by Qualifying, both incident free and after a lunch break the first of nine races got underway at 1.00pm.

Races 1 & 2 were six lap heats for the 175cc-1300cc machines, the first nine in each progressing to the two eight-lap legs. It was a Kawasaki one-two-three in the opening heat won by Ryan Farquhar who headed home Michael Pearson and Ian Lougher. Heat two saw Keith Pringle, Derek Shiels and Dave Hewson take the podium places, with Ian comfortably qualifying in a strong 5th place.

Race 6 saw the top 18 riders from Races 1 & 2 lining up for Leg 1 of the National Superbikes race. Michael Pearson had the hole shot, followed by Ryan Farquhar and Ian Lougher.

At the end of the first lap, Pearson had a 0.380 of a second lead over Farquhar with Lougher third 2 seconds down on the leader. Lap two Ryan was in front half-a-second in front as Lougher dropped back further still, with Derek Shiels, Dave Hewson and Ivan Lintin completing the top six. Farquhar had increased his lead to 2.7 seconds at the end of the third lap. At half-distance it had increased to 4.720 seconds, with Lougher 8.2 seconds down on the leader. Three-quarter distance and the leaders advantage was up to 6.190 seconds, with Michael Pearson 5 seconds up on Ian Lougher.

At the chequered flag it was Ryan Farquhar taking his 60th race win at Oliver’s Mount, followed by Michael Pearson and Ian Lougher. The remaining top 8 places were separated by 10 seconds with Ian finishing in 8th.

Leg 2 and the Cock O’ The North feature race will be run later today (Sunday).

Posted: July 11, 2010