Farmer still in driving seat after a weekend of highs and lows
TWO trying day’s at Assen for British Supersport Championship leader Keith Farmer saw him crash out of Saturday’s wet opening sprint race on the opening lap and then in yesterday’s epic encounter on a dry track he took the chequered flag in second position.
That would have given the Clogher rider the championship, but he was penalised a minute by Race Direction for a collision on the final lap when he rode into the side of Ben Currie putting the German-born Australian on the deck uninjured.
The Appleyard McAdam Yamaha rider still holds a 43 point championship lead over fellow Ulsterman Andrew Irwin with two races and a maximum 50 points remaining.
Irwin just simply won’t give in until it is mathematically impossible to win the series and he scored two second place finishes in the weekend races to keep his title aspirations alive.
Farmer said: “I made a mistake, but it wasn’t meant. The incident is under investigation and if I’m penalised I’ll go to Brands Hatch confident of securing the championship.
“I lost my mother recently and she was my motivator, getting me out of bed in the morning to go training. This podium is for her.”
The race yesterday was won by Finnish rider Eemeli Lahti, his first victory in the class on a Suzuki.
In a good day for Suzuki, Sylvain Guintoli won the second BSB race, his first win of the season, having just missed a podium in race one, won by Leon Haslam, who leads the title fight by 32 points from Josh Brookes going into the final three races at Brands Hatch.
At Mondello Park Alastair Seeley scored a hat-trick of wins in the final round of the Masters Superbike series with Charles Stuart third in each race although this wasn’t enough to stop Richie Ryan from winning the series by 21 points from the Ballycastle rider.
In the Masters Supersport championship, Jason Lynn cruised to the title with two wins and a third to finish 57 points ahead of Ross Patterson, who scored three fifth place finishes over the weekend.
Aghadowey rider Eunan McGlinchey, who had already clinched the Production Twin series, finished third in the first Supersport race on Saturday, second in yesterday’s opener before taking a tenth of a second victory over Kevin Keyes in the final race.
√ THE Irish Motocross des Nations team of Graeme Irwin, Martin Barr and Stuart Edmonds did the MCUI proud at Matterley Basin in Hampshire by qualifying straight into the final, finishing 15th overall after yesterday’s three races that included world champions and Grand Prix competitors. Irwin was the best of the Irish with 21st and 22nd place finishes on his Open class machine.