O’Carroll narrowly misses out on Armoy Road Race top ten – featuring full lap on-board video

O’Carroll narrowly misses out on Armoy Road Race top ten

Anthony O’Carroll is the only local motorcycle racer to commit to closed-roads events this season.

He made the long trip to Armoy, County Antrim last weekend where the Ballyduff man contested two races in the Armoy Road Races – Race of Legends meeting.

It was the first road race to run in Ireland this year and the first closed road meeting since the Cookstown 100 last September where O’Carroll made his road racing debut.

On Saturday he rode the same Kawasaki ZX6R that he usually races in the Dunlop Masters Supersport Cup class. He was also racing a Suzuki SV Production Twin that Maynooth Cycles have sponsored for his road racing season.

In his opening race, the Junior Support race, on board the Suzuki, he finished in 13^th place after starting 23^rd on the grid.

He admitted that he was not fully used to the new machine, and that it did not have as much power as his Kawasaki, so he had to adopt a different riding style to get through the race.

“I am starting to learn how to drive a Production Twin – you have to keep the throttle open,” he said straight after the race. “The speeds are mental [on the roads] compared to Mondello Park. And it’s a lot harder to pass.”

In his second event, the Senior Support race, he started 14^th on his more familiar Kawasaki. He had worked his way up to ninth overall when it started to rain, and he backed off and eventually finished 11^th. He was just one second off his ambition to finish in the top ten of an Irish National Road Race.

“I enjoyed that race, I settled into more of a rhythm,” he added. “I backed off towards the finish, the rain was getting heavier, and the road-ends were getting slipperier.”

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