In bright crisp windy conditions the first leg of spring cup A final races saw Ryan Farquhar make a tremendous start on his own teams ZX10R Kawasaki.
Lee Johnston, Guy Martin, Ivan Lintin, Dean Harrison where all in hot pursuit as lap 1 showcased top class pure road racing action between the Kawasaki, BMW and Yamaha mounted riders.
At the end of lap 1 2011 Steve Henshaw international gold cup race winner Ryan held a moderate advantage over Guy Martin with Lee Johnston, Dean Harrison and Ivan Lintin not far behind.
Onto lap two which saw Martin applying huge pressure on race leader Farquhar. Tyco BMW’s Martin was adapting extremely quickly to the S1000RR BMW.
By lap number three the eight times Steve Henshaw international gold cup winner had gone into race lead with Ryan Farquhar now holding second position.
Dean Harrison was showing good form on Mar Train racing’s R1M Yamaha before dropping out of contention which meant Lee Johnston moved into third position just in front of Ivan Lintin with James Cowton holding fifth position.
Laps four and five saw positions within the top six remain largely the same as Guy Martin opened a gap of over 2.5 seconds out front, one big change though was Lee Johnston retiring from the race which meant Ivan Lintin now slotted into third place.
James Cowton now holding fourth position was impressing many people in his first pure road race outing on Danny Tomlinson racing CBR 1000 Honda Fireblade.
Final lap of the race saw Guy Martin maintaining a comfortable advantage at the front. Hugely popular Guy took the checkered flag at the end of the final lap to begin his 2015 road racing season in top fashion.
Race victory also marked an extremely positive first outing on Tyco BMW’s superstock bike which looks set to be extremely competitive at this year’s North West 200 and Isle of Man TT.
Ryan Farquhar recorded second place finish, the seven times Duke road race rankings champion rolled back the years in opening spring cup a final race as he produced a highly accomplished performance on his own teams ZX10R Kawasaki.
Ivan Lintin finished in third position as he marked his first pure road race outing on RC Express racing’s ZX10R Kawasaki superbike with a top class display.
James Cowton secured fourth place finish as he finished leading Honda mounted rider in the race, the reigning Duke road race rankings champion continues to further establish his reputation as a specialist around Oliver’s Mount.
Finishing in fifth position was 2012 spring cup feature race winner Steve Mercer. Steve who holds start number 20 for superbike, superstock, senior races at TT 2015 was happy with top five placing.
Completing the top six finishers was Mark Goodings who is set to this year compete for the first time at the Isle of Man TT.
Leading supersport 600 mounted competitor was Tom Weeden who finished a highly creditable seventh.
Downshift motorsport’s Dan Hegarty marked his Oliver’s Mount debut with a fine eighth place finish.
Dan has been aiming for many years to compete around the mount and today’s action around the iconic road race circuit proved it proved the wait for the talented rider.
Bruce Birnie sealed ninth place finish as he opened his 2015 road racing season with a high quality result.
Rounding out the top ten finishers was Dave Hewson on obsession engineering backed RSV4 Aprilia.
One of the main questions going into the 2015 road racing season was how would Guy Martin adapt to the S1000RR BMW.
On the basis of today’s result he has adapted extremely well but it’s obvious as well that there’s more to come from the immensely fast machine.