By Last evening the launch of the 2017 Around A Pound Tandragee 100 took place, which saw seven times Duke Road Race Rankings champion Ryan Farquhar in attendance alongside prospective TT newcomer Adam McLean, Sarah Boyes, John Burrows, Patch Racing’s Davy Graham and roads legend Ray McCullough.
High profile announcements included that in total almost 350 entries had been received, for the opening Irish roads meeting of 2017.
Photo by Neil Biggerstaff
In total there is 42 newcomers to the County Armagh based event, amongst them include rising roads star Dominic Herbertson, Manxman Jamie Williams, Germany’s Mathias Winkenjohann and Vassitios Takos, plus Italy’s Matteo Bleggi.
Joining Honda Racing’s Guy Martin in the premier Open and Senior Open races include Cookstown BE Racing’s Derek Sheils, Derek McGee, Alan Bonner, Shaun Anderson, Seamus Elliott and Thomas Maxwell.
Additionally Tandragee will mark William Dunlop’s opening roads action of the year, aboard his YZF R6 Yamaha, backed by Ivan Curran and Caffrey International.
The Czech Republic enjoys strong representation courtesy of the hugely popular duo of Michal Dokoupil and Veronika Hankocyova, whilst added ones to watch includes 2004 Senior Manx GP winner Davy Morgan, Dario Cecconi, Rhys Hardisty, Andy Farrell and Matt Rees.
Eight races in total are scheduled to take place at this year’s Tandragee 100, which has all the hallmarks of been a thrilling and extremely captivating one.
The Open and Junior Support races are set to open the race action on the 21st of April, with six races taking place the following day, which includes the Supersport, Senior Support and Super Twin encounters.
In summing up what makes the challenging roads of Tandragee so illustrious, Works Racing’s Patrick Walker states:
“The circuit’s in deepest, greenest rural Northern Ireland, with a paddock that’s more gently waving grass and blizzards of blossom than tarmac and caravans.
When you ride the circuit, what strikes you is how beautifully it all flows together, each corner feeding into the next one.
The circuit really does have everything: tight corners; a long main straight; and fast corners you take in 4th or 5th gear with the throttle wide open, and what you can’t see from a map is the way the circuit rises and falls the whole time.”
Words by Stevie Rial
