After a three-year absence, the Faugheen 50 Road Races returned in tumultuous fashion as a mix of great weather, enthusiastic spectators, high quality action lighted up this afternoon’s qualifying sessions.
Qualifying competition opened with Manxman Marcus Simpson who would also storm to the top of the Junior Support standings bagging Senior Support pole, finishing over 0.6 quicker than fellow rapidly improving roads force Keelim Ryan.
Ryan went onto take Lightweight qualifying honours, getting the better of Stephen Tobin whilst respective fastest Junior 250, Senior 1000 Classics exponents were roads veterans Brian Mateer and Richard Ford.
Closing in on the 100 Irish road race wins mark, Barry Davidson got his latest roads venture off to the best possible start by securing pole positions for tomorrow’s Junior 350, Senior 500 Classics races.
Sweeney Edges Browne for Supersport Pole:
Arguably the main captivating, intriguing qualifying session of the day arose in the always competitive Supersport class.
Dominant Super Twins, Open class pole sitter Michael Sweeney, BE Racing/RK Racing’s Michael Browne jostled it out for qualifying spoils.
Swapping on multiple occasions the fastest lap time, ultimately Duke Road Race Rankings Champion Sweeney had the edge, lapping at 1 minute 18.659 seconds.
This was almost bettered by fellow R6 Yamaha pilot, runaway 125/Moto 3 qualifying victor Browne, lapping at 1 minute 18.691 seconds, finishing only 0.032 in arrears!
Third quickest, Global Robots/PHR Performance supported Brian McCormack, Graham Kennedy we’re not far behind either with under 1.5 seconds covering the Supersport qualifying top four.
Photo credit: Derek Wilson
Words by Stevie Rial #dontletfearcontrolyou