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by Philip Wain

It's been a steady week so far at the 2012 Isle of Man races for Ryan Farquhar as he continues to get his machines dialled into the Mountain Course but the new Lightweight class has seen the KMR Kawasaki team owner excel. The class, for Supertwin machines, has seen Ryan top every practice session so far with Tuesday evening seeing him set a superb lap of 115.398mph. Meanwhile, team-mate Jamie Hamilton has been getting quicker and quicker with each session and the Ballyclare youngster has consistently been the quickest newcomer. With Saturday evening's opening practice session being just for the Lightweight machines and newcomers, both Ryan and Jamie were able to get some early laps in and Ryan topped the Lightweight class with a lap of 113.587mph as Jamie got his first taste of the Mountain Course. Monday evening was when the whole event got started with the 1000cc machines out on track and with conditions continuing to be perfect, a steady session saw Ryan lap at 123.871mph with Jamie increasing his speed to 112.688mph. Tuesday night was another beautiful day on the Island although the bright sun did cause riders a few headaches during the session. Despite not being happy with the changes he'd made to the Superbike, Ryan did increase his speed to 125.197mph and then topped the Lightweight session with a lap of 115.398mph, 23 seconds clear of his nearest rival. Team-mate Michael Rutter was third quickest at 113.149mph with Jamie 11th at 109.921mph who also improved his Superbike time to 116.564mph. On Wednesday evening, Ryan went out on his Superstock and Supersport machines for the first time during the week and was immediately on the pace, going 7th and 5th fastest respectively. Meanwhile, Jamie continued to impress and, again the quickest newcomer on the night, he lapped at 118.563mph Speaking after Wednesday evening's third practice session, Ryan commented: "I'm happy enough with how the week has gone so far and practice week is always the same, you're constantly making changes to the bike to make it perform even better. With the course being so long you'll never get the bike set-up 100% and it's more of a compromise for the whole lap but we're getting there. I wasn't happy initially with the Twin on Saturday night but we made a few changes to it and Tuesday felt a lot better. I was happy with a 115mph+ lap but there's definitely more to come and with a few more tweaks to the suspension and gearing we should be able to go a fair bit quicker. The Superbike felt pretty good on Monday but the changes I made for Tuesday's practice were too much so I've gone back to the settings I started with and will just make little adjustments now to get the handling closer to how I want it to be." "Jamie's been going really well and has been building his pace up nicely in each sesson, which is all you can do as a newcomer, you've just got to keep putting in the laps and get the experience. I caught him at Ballagarey on the Twin on Tuesday evening and waved at him to tuck in behind me so, hopefully, he will have learned a few more bits then and he ended the session 11th fastest so it's so far so good - Michael was third fastest too so the Supertwins are all working really well now. I'd also like to welcome on board my new sponsors Vauxhall and I'm extremely grateful for their support and I'm looking forward to working with them for the rest of the year and, hopefully, giving them some good results. Eurocars have also loaned me a car for the fortnight which is also superb and it's nice to be able to get away from the paddock and spend a bit of down time with the family." Practice is due to continue on Thursday evening, in preparation for the opening Superbike race on Saturday, but with rain falling on the Island, it could well be Friday before the bikes take to the 37.73-mile circuit once more. Photo: Ryan Farquhar in action on Saturday evening practice. Picture by Stephen Davison - Pacemaker Press International

Ends

I'm happy enough with how the week has gone so far and practice week is always the same, you're constantly making changes to the bike to make it perform even better

Ryan Farquhar, TT Competitor

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Steady TT practice week so far for Farquhar as Hamilton impresses on debut