Todd completes hat-trick at Armoy road races

Davey Todd has completed a hat-trick of wins at the Armoy road races by taking victories in the feature ‘Race of Legends’, the Open race and the second Supersport event of the weekend.

The 28-year-old set a new absolute course lap record at 109.325mph on his way to his convincing success in the main race of the day, a triumph which took his overall tally of wins at the county Antrim races to seven.

The Yorkshireman dominated Supersport race two and had 1.7 seconds to spare over runner-up Mike Browne at the chequered flag, with third-place finisher Jamie Coward a further 2.7 seconds behind the Cork rider.

Todd set the fastest lap of the race at 104.963 on his third circuit of seven on his Powertoolmate V2 Ducati.

BPE by Russell Racing Yamaha rider Browne had seen off Todd in the opening Supersport outing of the meeting on Friday night.

In the Open race, Todd was again in imperious form as he improved his two-year-old lap speed benchmark for the three-mile circuit to 108.691mph.

The Milwaukee BMW by TAS Racing rider won by 10.79 seconds from Market Rasen’s Phil Crowe, with Coward making up the podium positions and Dominic Herbertson, Michael Sweeney and Aprilia competitor Browne rounding out the top six.

Manxman Conor Cummins was eighth on his FHO Racing BMW.

Todd, who clinched a four-timer in 2022, bettered his track record on the third lap of the ‘Race of Legends’, which he again bossed from start to finish, lapping in a time of one minute 39.051 seconds to better the record speed he had set earlier in the day.

Crowe crossed the line 6.5 seconds adrift of Todd, followed by Herbertson and Coward.

For Todd, his treble continues a stellar season which has also seen him win the Senior and Superstock races at the Isle of Man TT, claim a treble at the North West 200, win individual races on his way to leading the National Superstock 1000cc series on British short circuits and seal the Southern 100 Solo Championship crown.

Also on Saturday, Coward made it a double in the Supertwins class on his Kawasaki by repeating his narrow victory over Browne on Friday night.

In Twins race one, the KTS Steadplan rider had edged out his Aprilia rival by a mere 0.012secs.

His margin of success over Browne in race two was 0.067secs, Jordan taking the final podium spot ahead of Sweeney.

Coward had unofficially broken the lap record for the class by becoming the first Supertwins rider to lap at over 100mph in Friday qualifying and made that new benchmark official by posting a best speed of 100.536 in Saturday’s race.

Browne and Jordan also recorded laps in excess of 100mph.

In a thrilling finish to the Classic Superbike race, David Bell got the better of Crowe by 0.99secs while Burrows Engineering/RK Racing pilot Herberston took victory on his Honda in the Moto3/125cc category.

Chris Meyer was 12.3 seconds in arrears of the Yorkshireman in finishing second, with Nigel Moore third.