Armoy Road Races: Davey Todd sets first 109mph lap on way to dominant 'Race of Legends' victory for hat-trick
Unstoppable Davey Todd obliterated the outright lap record with the first 109mph lap at Armoy to win the showpiece Bayview Hotel ‘Race of Legends’ on Saturday for a hat-trick.
The Saltburn rider, who earlier dominated the opening Superbike and Supersport races, saved his best for last as he put on a show at the Co Antrim venue on the Milwaukee BMW, smashing his hours-old lap record on the second lap before raising the bar to 109.325mph on the Milwaukee BMW M1000RR.
Todd, who lined up on pole, was three seconds ahead of Phil Crowe (BMW) after the first lap and had increased his lead to 8.7s after his record 109mph lap on the third lap.
He extended his advantage to 13 seconds over Crowe before winding down on the final two laps, closing out his third win of the meeting by 6.5s.
It was Todd’s second ‘Race of Legends’ win after his first triumph in the race in 2022.
The 28-year-old is one of only three riders who have won the headline race along with 10-time winner Michael Dunlop and Ryan Farquhar since the Armoy meeting was first held in 2009.
Todd also won the Open Superbike and Supersport races to make it a treble.
Dominic Herbertson finished third on the Burrows Engineering/RK Racing BMW ahead of Jamie Coward (KTS Racing Honda).
Marcus Simpson (Honda) and Ryan Whitehall (WR Racing Yamaha) completed the top six, with Ballymena’s Neil Kernohan in seventh on the Kernohan Racing Yamaha.
Paul Jordan was a retirement on the Jackson Racing Honda along with Mike Browne (IN Competition Aprilia), while Michael Sweeney ran off on his MJR BMW but was okay.
Conor Cummins finished 12th on the FHO Racing BMW after taking eighth in the first Superbike race.
Meanwhile, a pulsating Supertwin race again went down to the wire with Yorkshireman Coward getting the verdict by six hundredths of a second over Browne in a repeat of their photo finish in Friday’s race.
The win gave Coward a double on his KTS Racing Kawasaki, with Magherafelt rider Jordan claiming third on the Jackson Racing Honda.
David Bell won the Classic Superbike race in another dash to the line by just 0.099s from Crowe, while Kevin Baker was victorious in the Senior Support race.
Andy Hornby won the Senior Classic 1000 race by10.3s from Richard Ford, with Barry Davidson taking the win in the Classic 500 race.