Farquhar and Kawasaki dominate Scarborough race weekend.

The annual Cock ‘O the North road races have a special place in the hearts of lovers of road racing alongside other classic events such as the TT and North West 200.

As such, it attracts huge interest from the UK’s top road racers eager to compete in what is normally an attractive and quiet public park. With its access roads making up the track – and the crowd as close to the action as at some Irish club road races – the atmosphere is always exciting.

No more so than this year with on-form Ryan Farquhar making an assault on one of his, as yet, unconquered road racing ambitions, the Cock ‘O the North title.

Alongside Farquhar in the Kawasaki camp at Scarborough were Blackhorse Kawasaki rider, and fellow roads expert, Ian Lougher, rising young hope, Michael Pearson and, in the sidecar class, official Kawasaki entrant, Dave Molyneux with passenger Patrick Farrance.

In gloriously hot weather, Saturdays event started with, appropriately, a win for Dungannon’s Farquhar in race one, heat one. In what was to become a familiar sight over the weekend, the podium was an all Kawasaki affair with Pearson second and Lougher on the final step.

Next up was the first sidecar race. Putting the obvious disappointment of mechanical woes at the TT behind him, Molyneux expertly guided his Team Green sidecar outfit to victory with a 1.7s margin over the pairing of Wallis and Wareham.

Just before a quarter past two, the National 600 race started and eight laps later, the crowd witnessed a repeat of the earlier 175-1300cc race. Farquhar threaded his Ninja ZX-6R through the tight circuit followed once more by Pearson and Lougher, a gap of just over 4 seconds separating first to third.

The national 125GP-400 race quickly followed and Farquhar swapped to his self developed KX450 powered single cylinder machine pitching it against a range of bikes - including many four cylinder entrants with more top end power available to them.

No concern for Farquhar though as he added to his win tally and, once more, headed a Kawasaki podium, this time with Mick Gooding second on his ZXR400 and Joshua Leaning third, also on a four cylinder Kawasaki ZXR400. With Lougher forth on his KX450 powered single cylinder machine, Kawasaki bikes and riders filled four of the five top places in the race.

No time for Farquhar to rest on his well earned laurels though as the next race was another 175-1300 event. Quickly swapping a small single cylinder racer for his Ninja ZX-10R Superstock machine, Farquhar was first across the line at race end and, once again, bested Pearson with Welshman Lougher third and Dave Hewson a strong fifth on another ZX-10R.

Back to smaller machines next as the MiniTwins race started and Farquhar blasted away on another self-developed bike, an ER-6n based machine. Not content with a race win by nearly four seconds, the talented Irish racer also posted a faster race lap than the 250cc grand prix style machines that shared the race with the 650cc road bike based MiniTwin machines – some achievement!

Final race for a stunning Kawasaki dominated Saturday was a second win for the Molyneux and Farrance pairing in the sidecar race, a great victory and perhaps an omen for what was to follow on Sunday?

Starting as he meant to continue on the second day of the event, Farquhar won the opening 175-1300cc race on his Ninja ZX-10R from the on-form Pearson with Lougher uncharacteristically missing from the podium with a DNF.

Molyneux had his eyes on a clean sweep after winning the first sidecar race of the day. As the chairs returned to the paddock the 125GP-400 race lined up and, once more, Farquhar won but with one of his smallest margins of the weekend, besting Howarth’s four cylinder machine by just over a second at race end grateful for the lithe handling of his KX450 motocross engined mount.

Lougher made a characteristic return to the podium in the 600 race that followed sharing the applause of the crowd with Pearson in second and that man again, Farquhar, on the top step.

The Kawasaki rout continued as the national 250 and MiniTwin event concluded with Farquhar at the head of another Kawasaki 1,2,3 and four ER-6n machines in the top five dominating the grand prix style 250cc two stroke machines that they had previously shared the grid with.

Race 16 completed a triumphant weekend for Molyneux and Farrance with four wins from four using their immaculate DMR outfit and vindicating the world famous Manxman’s move to Kawasaki power in 2010.

Next up – with little time for the crowd to gather their collective breath – was the feature Cock ‘O the North race. Again, four Ninja ZX-10R machines in the top five and, perhaps predictably, again three Kawasaki riders on the podium with Pearson second, Lougher third and the dominant Farquhar in first and rightly crowned 2010 Cock ‘O the North.

With a magnificent nine wins from nine race starts, Farquhar was understandably jubilant at adding the Scarborough title to a whole host of successes and accolades achieved with Kawasaki machinery as part of his self managed KMR team.

Speaking afterwards, Farquhar commented:“Well, it doesn’t get much better than that and to come away with 9 wins from 9 starts is absolutely brilliant! I always enjoy coming to race at Scarborough and this weekend has been no exception and it’s been a superb two days for me and the team. It was quite frantic with the races coming one after the other, but the team did a great job in making sure everything was fully prepared and ready and that allowed me to concentrate on my riding.”

Farquhar pic credit: Pacemaker Press

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