Armoy Road Races: Mike Browne edges Paul Jordan and Richard Cooper for victory in breathless Supertwin opener
Mike Browne picked up where he left off in 2025 at the Bayview Hotel Armoy Road Races as the Cork man clinched another victory in a breathless Supertwin race in the warm evening sunshine on Friday.
Northern Ireland’s Paul Jordan broke his year-old lap record on the Jackson Racing Aprilia with a new benchmark of 101.160mph but had to settle for second best by five hundredths of a second in the dash to the line.
Newcomer Richard Cooper (Jack Reid Cars KMR Kawasaki) was right on their tails as the trio flashed over the line, with the Nottingham man only 0.288s down on winner Browne as all three smashed the previous lap record.
Browne, who was riding the Melbray/Laycock Racing Paton for the first time since he finished as the runner-up in the Sportbike race behind Michael Dunlop at the Isle of Man TT, won four races at Armoy last year and started the weekend in the best possible way.
“It was good, I haven’t rode it since the TT and we made a few changes after qualifying,” said Browne.
“We need to make a few more again but it’s going good.”
Browne led across the line on every lap with Cooper initially giving chase and pole man Jordan looking for a way through in third.
Jordan eventually moved into second place on the fourth lap but the Ulster rider could not make a decisive pass on Browne.
“I went faster than we did this morning but I felt like we had a wee bit of an issue there,” said Jordan, who set an unofficial Supertwin lap record in qualifying.
“It was still a great race and we’ll go again tomorrow.
“We’re up against obviously the Paton and the likes of Ryan’s [KMR Kawasaki] bike, which is really strong, but it was good.”
Cooper showed his pedigree as the seven-time North West 200 winner secured a close third in his first race around the undulating three-mile course.
“It was nice to be with the guys because I’ve not actually seen Mike or Paul [in qualifying] this weekend, so that was the first time I had a look at them,” said Cooper.
“There’s some areas I need to work on and some areas they are very strong, but there are areas where I’m not so bad either.
“I built into it nice and closed the gap towards the end, so we’ll take a podium and be happy with it.”
Michael Sweeney finished fourth on his MSR Aprilia with the top six completed by Dominic Herbertson and Londonderry’s Sean Brolly.