By Ian Watson spring cup road races preview
Heading the entry for the season opening pure road race of the season is the man at the moment around Oliver’s Mount Ryan Farquhar from Dungannon in Northern Ireland will once again return on his kmr kawasakis and will be looking to bring home the silverware. Ryan’s main rivals appear to be also from Northern Ireland which are the Dunlop brothers Michael and William. It is not yet known as to which machinery the Ballomoney duo will be bringing to the mount but expect them both to take the challenge to Ryan in particularly the big bike races.
Former cock of the north race winner Michael Pearson will again be back at the mount but only after a last minute change of machinery for this season on-board an ex smt honda British superbike. Rivals for many years at Oliver’s Mount Ian Lougher and Chris palmer will return again to face against each other in the competitive 125 class. Ian will once again run his own team this season now under the name ILR Kawasaki on a 600 and a 1000. Former senior Manx grand prix winner Davy Morgan will be back once again at the spring cup with a full compliment of machinery a Suzuki gsx-r 1000, Yamaha r6, Kawasaki er-6 and a honda rs250.
Seasoned road racer and Oliver’s Mount specialist Keith Pringle has for this season on the roads a bmw sr1000 and will be looking for some good solid results at the spring cup this year. Up and coming pure road racing stars Dean Harrison and Lee Vernon will both be looking for top results at the first road race meeting of the season.
Dean will have his Ian Bell motorcycles sponsored Yamaha r6 on him that he will also race at the Isle of Man TT and at the cock of the north road races and at the gold cup in September at Scarborough. Lee Vernon will have his Yamaha r6 and bmw sr1000 on him and will look to build on a good season on the roads from last season.
Top 10 finisher at the Isle of Man TT last year Ben Wylie will be present at the spring cup on his per cup coffee sponsored Yamaha r6 and will be confident of a brilliant result after in 2010 he achieved a top 5 finish at Oliver’s Mount on a Yamaha r6 as well. Isle of Man TT newcomers this year Daley Mathison and Gary Graves will be on 600s and will be looking for some good testing and racing ahead of their TT debuts.
There are some interesting newcomers to Oliver’s Mount for the spring cup meeting this year most notably Dan Cooper from Stroud a board his centurion racing machines. Learning the tight and twist circuit will be a challenge for this up and coming road racing star but remember his record on the short circuits is fantastic having won a British supersport championship race and a British 125 championship race winner as well.
This year’s spring cup meeting will be it looks on paper the best for many years in fact the only thing I think everyone wants to predict is the weather being good!
Words by Stevie Rial
