Farquhar Denied as Mid Antrim is Cancelled
GPR Mailing List
Dealers
Aug 8th, 2011
Ryan Farquhar was denied the opportunity of adding to his haul of Irish National road race wins on Saturday when the Mid Antrim 150 road races were cancelled.
The organisers called off the event at 12.30pm because of extensive oil spillages on the circuit, with sabotage believed to be the likely cause of the drama.
Practice took place on Friday evening without a hitch and Ryan was able to claim pole position for all of his races whilst new team recruit Jamie Hamilton made his road racing bow on the KMR ER6 Kawasaki, also taking pole position in his class. However, when the organisers and competitors arrived at the Clough circuit on Saturday, they found that most of it had been covered in oil with a major clean-up operation required.
Whilst this took place, the problem was further heightened by rain fall and although some riders, including Ryan, were prepared to race, many weren’t and the organisers ultimately made the decision to call the meeting off.
Speaking later, a disappointed Ryan said; “It’s a great shame when an oil spillage results in the meeting being cancelled and if it was deliberate then that makes it even worse. Accidents and weather can disrupt things and we accept that but this was something totally different and it’s not fair to all those people – riders, organisers, fans – who make the meeting happen.”
“Practice had gone well for me and I was happy with the performance of the bikes so I was looking forward to a good day’s racing, as was everyone else but a minority denied the whole paddock that opportunity. It was also a great shame for Jamie as he did an absolutely brilliant job. It was his first ever outing at a National road race so to be on pole and just half a second off the class lap record was superb so it bodes well for the future. All we can do is put this behind us, hope it never happens again and look forward to Dundrod and the Ulster GP next week.”
Both Ryan and Hamilton will be in action at the Dundrod 150 road races and the Ulster Grand Prix next week, the action getting underway on Wednesday.
Picture by Stephen Davison - Pacemaker Press International
Phil Wain
Freelance PR
