Farquhar takes three wins at Tandragee Ryan Farquhar enjoyed another superb day of racing on Saturday with the KMR Kawasaki rider taking a hat-trick of race wins and the Man of the Meeting award at the Tandragee 100 road races. The Dungannon ace took the Open, Supertwins and Moto 450 races and backed this up with two extremely hard fought runner-up spots behind Michael Dunlop in the Supersport and feature Superbike events. The Open race was first up for Ryan and with a good start, he led Michael Dunlop by 0.6s at the end of the first lap. The duo soon began to pull away from the rest of the field and as the race entered it’s second half, Ryan began to edge away from Dunlop too. Sure enough, he was able to open up a significant gap and he eventually took the chequered flag 3.25s clear of his younger rival for his first win of the day. The same pairing then went head to head in the Supersport 600cc race but this time it was even closer with the lead changing hands on a number of occasions. This time though it was Dunlop who prevailed and he just held off Ryan, the gap between the duo at the end of the 5 laps just 0.096 seconds! However, Ryan didn’t have to wait long for his second win of the day with a start to finish victory coming in the Moto 450 race. It was a similar story in the Supertwins race where he ran out a convincing winner by a whopping 15.4s to complete his hat-trick and that just left the main event of the day, the Tandragee 100 Superbike race. In what was without doubt the race of the day, Ryan and Michael gave the fans a race to remember as they embarked on a furious battle that went the entire race distance. There was nothing to choose between them with both taking turns in the lead but, on the final lap, Michael grabbed the lead and he held on in the run in to the flag to edge Ryan out by just 0.9s. Team-mate Jamie Hamilton had a bit of a mixed day around the 5.5-mile venue, retiring from the first Superbike race with a broken radiator as he fell victim to all the stones that were being kicked up from the recently resurfaced circuit. However, despite the distinct lack of track time, he did take an excellent third place in the Supertwins race for another podium finish. Speaking later, a happy Ryan commented; “It’s been another great day albeit a tough one both with the hard, competitive races and with the circuit not being in the best of shape. The recent resurfacing meant there were still a lot of stones lying around and unless you were out front, you were going to receive the worst of them. Fortunately, I managed to make good starts in all the races and in the first Superbike race I was able to keep Michael at bay and edge away in the closing stages for a good win. Jamie’s radiator got punctured though and that meant his day on the big bike was sadly over.” “The Moto 450 and Supertwins races gave me two comfortable wins but the other two races were anything but and it was really close between Michael and myself. He was riding really well and it was good, clean racing so I thoroughly enjoyed myself out there and can’t be unhappy with two close seconds. There was nothing between us in either race but he just managed to edge by along the final straight on the last lap but I’m happy enough especially with the performance of the Superstock bike. I’m really looking forward to the NW200 and TT races on it as it’s handling really, really well so we’re looking in good shape.” “Jamie was a bit disappointed having to retire from the big bike races but 3rd in the Supertwins race was a great effort given his lack of track time and Tandragee’s not the easiest place to learn so to finish on the podium again was superb. I’m really looking forward to the North West now and although I’ve a bit of work to do with the Superbike and a couple of Supertwin engines, we’re looking good. That’s 14 wins now for myself this season and 17 in total for the team so let’s hope this good run continues!” More, from a press release issued by Indianapolis Motor Speedway: MotoGP RACE REPORT: GRAND PRIX OF PORTUGAL Stoner leads wire to wire to win, take points lead INDIANAPOLIS – The circle is complete for Casey Stoner after a lights-to-flag victory Sunday, May 6 in the Grand Prix of Portugal. Reigning World Champion Stoner now has won at every circuit on the current MotoGP schedule after earning his first victory at Estoril on his Repsol Honda, beating rival and fellow World Champion Jorge Lorenzo to the finish by 1.421 seconds. Stoner took the championship lead by one point, 66-65, over Lorenzo with his second consecutive victory of the season. Dani Pedrosa finished third on a Repsol Honda, while Tech 3 Yamaha teammates Andrea Dovizioso and Cal Crutchlow finished fourth and fifth, respectively. “In the end, it was another fantastic weekend for us,” Stoner said. “In warm-up we didn’t have a big problem with chatter, but then for the race, under the warmer conditions, we struggled a lot more. This was very difficult to ride with. I was changing the mapping to try and reduce the chatter problem. Toward the end of the race, I began to understand how to ride around it.” Stoner led from pole, pulling out a lead of nearly 1.5 seconds in the first few laps. But Lorenzo began to chip away on his Yamaha Factory Racing machine as Stoner suffered from tire chatter, pulling to within two-tenths of a second just past the halfway point. But then Stoner rebuilt a larger gap and pulled away for the victory. Ben Spies led the American contingent by finishing eighth on his Yamaha Factory Racing bike. Nicky Hayden finished 11th on his Ducati, the first time this season he has placed behind teammate Valentino Rossi, who finished seventh. Hayden’s bike was plagued by an electrical problem caused by radio signal interference at the circuit. American Colin Edwards did not race after suffering a broken collarbone during qualifying Saturday. He will undergo surgery to repair the injury this week in Barcelona, Spain. Randy de Puniet fell in front of Edwards in qualifying, causing Edwards to crash. In other MotoGP news, American Kenny Noyes was named this weekend as the reserve rider for the Pramac Ducati team. Noyes, who raced in Moto2 in 2010-11, will race for the team if race rider Hector Barbera is unable to compete due to injury. The next MotoGP race is the French Grand Prix on Sunday, May 20 at Le Mans. The Red Bull Indianapolis GP is the 11th of 18 races this season, Sunday, Aug. 19 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. PODIUM FINISHER QUOTES CASEY STONER (Winner, Repsol Honda Team): “In the end, it was another fantastic weekend for us. This morning we were more confident but also a little concerned because yesterday afternoon when we had a very similar setting to FP3, the bike was a little bit worse in the warm conditions. In warm-up we didn’t have a big problem with chatter, but then for the race, under the warmer conditions, we struggled a lot more. This was very difficult to ride with. I was changing the mapping to try and reduce the chatter problem. Toward the end of the race, I began to understand how to ride around it.” JORGE LORENZO (Second, Yamaha Factory Racing): “I’m happy with this second position because I was expecting to fight for third or fourth and not the victory. The bike improved a lot from the practices, so it was possible. I had two problems. At the start, I used a lot of clutch and burnt it. So for two or three laps, it was burning, and I lost a lot of distance from Casey. Also at the end, Casey was very strong. After this, everything was working well and I made a fastest lap, which is not very common for me. We are just one point behind Casey. Hopefully we can improve something on the bike (in testing) tomorrow and be in front again.” DANI PEDROSA (Third, Repsol Honda Team): “It’s been a really tough race from the beginning. The pace was very, very high from the first lap to the final one. Casey did a good race, unbelievably strong. I had a big shake in the first braking area; Casey and Jorge overtook me, and I lost 1.5 seconds on the first lap. Three races on the podium is very good overall, but in three races we missed something. So let’s try it again in the next one.” AMERICAN RIDER QUOTES BEN SPIES (Yamaha Factory Racing, eighth): “Very mixed emotions today. This is actually the first time in three years that I’ve finished a race here. As I told the team, I made four or five big mistakes during the race; they cost me time and places. It was a rough race, but I’m continuing to build my confidence. I don’t enjoy Estoril, so I’m happy to have finished. Now we go to Le Mans, which is a great event with an amazing crowd but another track I don’t love so much. I’m happy with the bike and its performance, so we’ll continue to build my confidence and improve the results.” NICKY HAYDEN (Ducati Team, 11th): “Starting from the first lap, there was an electrical problem, and the bike didn’t know where it was on the track. I tried my best to ride around the problem and not make mistakes. It’s really a shame to work hard all weekend but not be able to take advantage of it with a result in the race. The team did a great job overnight, and I felt so much better this morning in the warm-up. I almost matched my qualifying lap and was pretty consistent. Of course I’m not saying I was going to fight for the win, but it would have been nice to at least have a decent race.” POINTS Riders: Casey Stoner 66, Jorge Lorenzo 65, Dani Pedrosa 52, Cal Crutchlow 37, Andrea Dovizioso 35, Alvaro Bautista 29, Stefan Bradl 24, Nicky Hayden 23, Valentino Rossi 22, Hector Barbera 19, Ben Spies 18, Aleix Espargaro 9, Randy de Puniet 6, Colin Edwards 4, Danilo Petrucci 4, Michele Pirro 2, Mattia Pasini 2, Yonny Hernandez 2, Ivan Silva 1. Manufacturers: Honda 70, Yamaha 65, Ducati 27, ART 11, Suter 4, Ioda 4, FTR 2, BQR-FTR 2, BQR 1. MotoGP SUPPORT CLASS WINNERS Moto2: Marc Marquez, Spain, Team CatalunyaCaixa Repsol Suter-Honda. Moto3: Sandro Cortese, Germany, Red Bull KTM Ajo KTM. 2012 tickets: Tickets for the 2012 Red Bull Indianapolis GP MotoGP event, scheduled for Aug. 17-19 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, are on sale now at www.imstix.com, by calling (800) 822-INDY or (317) 492-6700 or by visiting the IMS Ticket Office at the IMS Administration Building at the corner of Georgetown Road and 16th Street between 8 a.m.-5 p.m. (ET) Monday-Friday. Tickets for groups of 20 or more also are on sale. Contact the IMS Group Sales Department at (866) 221-8775 for more information. Information on camping at IMS during the Red Bull Indianapolis GP is available at www.imstix.com. Hotel package information can be found at visitindy.com/redbull. More, from a press release issued by Harley-Davidson: Barnes Wins AMA Pro Vance & Hines XR1200 Race at Infineon Veteran Racer Takes First AMA Pro Win Since 1996 Sonoma, CA Veteran racer Michael Barnes, one of the longest tenured riders in the AMA Pro Road Racing paddock, earned an emotional and hard-fought victory in the AMA Pro Vance & Hines XR1200 series race at Infineon Raceway Sunday to break a 16-year victory drought. Barnes doggedly pursued his Bartels’ Harley-Davidson/Scrubblade teammate Tyler O’Hara for ten of the race’s eleven laps, never trailing by more than a half-second at the start/finish line, but just as it appeared that O’Hara would deny Barnes victory for the second race in a row, a missed shift by O’Hara exiting the final turn gave Barnes the narrow gap he needed to slip by for the victory. “Tyler’s so strong on the brakes. I could a get good drive and a good run on him out of a lot of different areas on the track but he was just that little bit stronger on the brakes,” Barnes said. “It caught me by surprise when he missed a shift because it was out of the last corner already. I just tucked in and made myself real narrow because he was close to the airfence, and I think he gave me a little bit of space there. There was just enough of a narrow opening for me to get through.” Although he has earned numerous podiums and victories in other series, the win was the 43-year-old’s first AMA Pro victory since a 750 Supersport race at Las Vegas in 1996. “Barney really earned it. He kept me honest the whole time. It just took one mistake. Coming out of [turn] eleven, my [transmission] popped out of gear,” O’Hara said. “I’m not disappointed at all, it’s just one of those things, and I’m actually really happy for Barney.” Polesitter Kyle Wyman finished third, citing an arm pump issue that forced him to settle into a slower pace that allowed Barnes and O’Hara to escape at the front. Further back, Suburban Motors Harley-Davidson’s Shane Narbonne came out of top of a back-and-forth fight for fourth place against Michael Corbino (XP Motorsports/Rossiter’s Harley-Davidson), and Josh Chisum nipped Travis Wyman for sixth. Gerry Signorelli, David Estok, and Darren James rounded out the top ten finishers. Final Results: 1. Michael Barnes (Bartels’ H-D/Scrubblade), 11 laps 2. Tyler O’Hara (Bartels’ H-D/Scrubblade), +0.149 second 3. Kyle Wyman (KLR Group/Vesrah), +10.238 seconds 4. Shane Narbonne (Suburban Motors H-D), + 20.564 seconds 5. Michael Corbino (XP Motorsports/Rossiter’s H-D), +20.775 seconds 6. Josh Chisum (Bartels’ H-D/Scrubblade), +26.382 seconds 7. Travis Wyman (Harv’s H-D), +26.438 seconds 8. Gerry Signorelli (Kuryakyn), +28.201 seconds 9. David Estok (Trev Deeley Motorcycles), +28.620 seconds 10. Darren James (Ruthless Racing/Deeley), +38.967 seconds 11. Michael R. Hannas II (Lilly Mae’s Cinnamon Rolls), +1:03.474 12. Pete Demas (Route One Racing), +1:03.971 13. Joe Rozynski (Kyle Wyman Racing), +1:16.432 14. Nicholas Hansen (Suburban Motors H-D), +1:22.097 15. Brice Cooper (Woodstock H-D), +1:22.232 16. Jeremiah Johnson (BE-EV.com/New Roc H-D), +1:22.394 17. Paul James (Hoban Cycle/Woodstock H-D), +1:28.272 XR1200 Championship Points 1. O’Hara, 83 2. Barnes, 77 3. K. Wyman, 74 4. T. Wyman, 47 5. Corbino, 43 6. Estok, 41 7. Signorelli, 38 8. D. James, 37 9. Chisum, 36 10. Narbonne, 33 The next round of the Vance & Hines XR1200 series is May 26-27 at MillerMotorsportsPark in Tooele, UT. Company Background Harley-Davidson Motor Company produces heavyweight custom, cruiser and touring motorcycles and offers a complete line of Harley-Davidson motorcycle parts, accessories, riding gear and apparel, and general merchandise. For more information, visit harley-davidson.com.