There were mixed fortunes for Isle of Man riders at last weekend’s Armoy road races in County Antrim.

On the back of a highly successful Southern 100, Joe Yeardsley was expected to go well in Northern Ireland and began strongly with third place in the first Supersport race on Friday evening astride his 750 Suzuki behind Paul Jordan and Mike Browne, ahead of newcomer, NW200 star Richard Cooper.

Marcus Simpson finished ninth in that race on his 765 Triumph, with Nathan Harrison 12th in his debut. He completed 50 laps of the three-mile course in a car last Thursday to learn his way round.

Yeardsley was lying fifth in the Supertwin race but pulled out in the closing stages with a front brake issue on the Flitwick Yamaha.

He sat out all of Saturday’s action after a severe oil spillage round the course caused major problems.

The second Supersport race was delayed two hours, but in heavy rain it did eventually go ahead without the Laxey man. ‘We decided not to compete in any of the races on Saturday as the risk didn’t outweigh the reward for us in those conditions.’

Browne won from Jordan, Cooper and Derek McGee with Conor Cummins (who had DNF’d on Friday evening) fifth on the Madhouse Racing Suzuki.

Browne (Honda) also won the Open race from Cummins and Dom Herbertson (both BMW), while Cooper won the second Supertwin race with a lap record.

Dale Brew was seventh in the Supertwin B race on his Jackson Racing-supported Aprilia.

Reunited with John Chapman’s 500cc MV Agusta, Dan Sayle followed Barry Davidson (Honda) home in the Senior Classic, with former Glen Auldyn resident Gareth Arnold third.

Marcus Simpson had a good ride to win the Classic Superbike race on the Duckshaw Racing 750 Kawasaki, beating Philip Crowe by 0.24 of a second (setting a lap record), but crashed out of the feature race.

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Marcus Simpson leading Phillip Crowe in the Classic Superbike race on Saturday (Photo: Baylon McCaughey) ((Photo: Baylon McCaughey))

‘A tricky weekend - happy enough with qualifying but on the opening lap in the Race of Legends I did the same thing I’d done every lap into Church; only difference being I hit the ejector seat button and went out the sunroof.

‘Was really confused by it but after talking to some other riders, it seems there may have been something down at that corner. 778 days without a crash whilst racing, nearly two seasons with WH Racing without crashing their bike, and nearly a 100% finish rate for races started in 2026 wasn’t to be.

‘With this my last meeting with WH I wanted to go out on a high, so I’m gutted. A massive thanks to everyone at WH Racing for everything over the last two years.’

Cummins finished fourth in the big race, won by 0.5s by Browne from Jordan, with Crowe third.

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Conor Cummins on his way to fourth place in the Race of Legends feature event at Armoy last weekend, being shadowed by Dom Herbertson (Photo: Baylon McCaughey) ((Photo: Baylon McCaughey))

Harrison sat out most of the day but came out for the big race. Unfortunately he got squeezed out entering the chicane on lap one, had to wait until a marshal let him back on the course only for the race to be red-flagged because of Simpson’s crash.

Nathan made good getaway in the restart but a sprocket failure, caused when a false neutral damaged a tooth, led to him retiring.

‘It was a shame about the weather but I enjoyed the new experience. I was happy to qualify P6 first time there on the big bike and come away as the fastest newcomer.’