Armoy Road Races: Mike Browne holds off Paul Jordan to wrap up Supersport double

Browne won the opening Supersport race on Friday evening by over six seconds, but the Cork man had to work harder against Jordan, who kept the pressure on the BPE by Russell Racing rider throughout the seven-lap showdown.

Browne and Jordan (Jackson Racing Honda by Prosper2) quickly broke away from the chasing pack and set a hot pace, exchanging fastest laps.

Browne held a slender advantage of 0.27s after three laps, with Michael Sweeney (EM Building Yamaha), Jamie Coward (KTS Macadam Racing Triumph) and Conor Cummins (Burrows Engineering/RK Racing Ducati) giving chase.

Browne upped his lead to 0.7s after the fifth lap, but Jordan refused to go down without a fight and reduced the deficit slightly to 0.68s after the penultimate lap, setting the fastest lap of the race in 1m 43.198s (104.932mph).

However, Browne was able to defend his lines on the last lap as the duo caught a slower rider, with the Irishman securing a brace in the class by half-a-second.

Sweeney pipped Coward for third place, coming home 16.7s down on Browne, with Cummins in fifth ahead of Joe Yeardsley (SpinArena.net Yamaha).

Eye-catching newcomer Franco Bourne, who was fifth after the second lap, retired on his Kawasaki.

Dungannon’s Kevin Lavery, a newcomer at Armoy, won the Junior Support race on the LMLR Kawasaki 650 by 10.494s from Sean Brolly (Aprilia 660), with Coleraine’s Lee Hara over 17 seconds back in third on his Aprilia.

In the Moto3/125GP race, Germany’s Chris Meyer prevailed in a battle with stalwart Nigel Moore to take the win by one second on his Honda 250.

Dan Sayle was also in contention until he was forced out.

Lee Osprey won the Supersport 300 race on Trison McMullan’s Kawasaki and set a new lap record for the class at 84.341mph.

In the Junior Classics, Moore claimed the honours on his 350 Honda by 42 seconds from Sayle (Honda 350).