Farquhar blitzes Scarborough record book

Ryan Farquhar notched up a unprecendented 18 wins in 18 rides at the Barry Sheene Classic Festival at Scarbought this weekend

In his record-breaking spree Farquhar recorded the most number of wins in one weekend by a rider at the venue, broke Bob Heath’s 13-year old 500cc Classic bike lap record and set the Classic Superbike lap record.

He said: “I can’t quite believe I’ve won 18 races this weekend but what a fantastic two days of racing! It’s been pretty tough through both qualifying and racing as I’ve been out in practically every session and it’s not easy to jump from one bike to another, particularly as they’re all so different.

Oliver’s Mount is a physically demanding circuit and the Classic bikes are fairly hard work around here with all the vibrations and gear changes but I couldn’t have hoped for a better weekend.”

The meeting combined modern day machines with classic bikes and, riding his 600cc KMR Kawasaki, Ryan won all four Supersport 600cc races and the four Superbike races.

Switching to Roger Winfield’s 350cc Honda, he then added three more wins to his tally in the 350cc Classic races. Ryan then rode Winfield’s 500cc Paton, the bike on which he has won the last two Senior Classic Manx GP races on, to take four 500cc Classic bike victories and the 3 Classic Superbike races.  Only an oil leak in practice with the GS1000 Suzuki prevented him from racing on four different types of machinery.

The victories also saw him pick up a haul of silverware including the Barry Sheene and Denis Parkinson Trophies.

Farquhar added: “None of the races were easy and I had to work hard for all of the wins. Olie Linsdell was pushing me really hard in the 500cc Classic races and I had to break one of the oldest circuit lap records to hold him off. It was the same in the 350cc races where Paul Coward was pushing me all the way and in the modern races where both Richard Gibson and Keith Pringle were riding really well. To win 18 races is simply superb and it’s been a real honour to have multiple world champion Jim Redman and Roger Marshall come over and congratulate me.

The weather’s been great and a good crowd turned out so I hope everyone’s enjoyed it like I have.”