Richard Cooper said he had “more in the tank” after claiming a sensational Supertwin victory and new lap record on his debut at the Bayview Hotel Armoy Road Races.

The Nottingham rider finished third in Friday’s opening Supertwin event, which was Cooper’s first race at the Co Antrim meeting.

Riding the Jack Reid Car Sales/KMR Kawasaki for Ryan Farquhar, the 43-year-old claimed his first Irish national road racing victory in style on Saturday.

In a close race, Cooper took the lead on the first lap and was chased by Paul Jordan (Jackson Racing Aprilia) and Friday’s winner Mike Browne (Melbray/Laycock Racing Paton), with only half-a-second between them.

placeholder image — Richard Cooper won the Supertwin race on his debut at Armoy on the Jack Reid Cars/KMR Kawasaki. Cooper is pictured with Ryan Farquhar and his team. (Photo by Stephen Davison/Pacemaker Press)

Cooper eventually began to edge ahead slightly by four tenths, while Browne passed Jordan to slot into second place.

A record final lap of 101.192mph sealed the deal for Cooper, who won by 1.050s from Browne, who held on for the runner-up spot by only seven hundredths of a second.

“It’s difficult to live up to expectations against these guys that have been coming here for years,” said Cooper, who is a seven-time winner at the North West 200, with five Supertwin wins and two in the Supersport class.

“I’ve had to work for it this weekend and yesterday [Friday], the conditions were fantastic and we did an enormous amount of laps, almost too many laps because I was a bit tired towards the end of the day.

“Today, with the wet conditions I had re-process everything and as you can see by my laps, I get faster as the race goes on and it’s something that I do; I’m cautious on laps one and two. Unfortunately it’s caught me out a little bit in a few races today, but it’s all to learn and knowledge that we can gain.”

Cooper admitted he was surprised by his lap record pace but said he had more in reserve “if we needed it”.

“I’m surprised to be fair because I was steady away and through the back section, up through Church, because there was a little bit of drizzle and I had a little off this morning on the Lightweight bike through there, through no fault of my own other than I just got caught out by the conditions at that point in time,” he added.

“So, very surprised and there’s plenty more in the tank if we needed it.”

Dominic Herbertson was around 21 seconds behind in fourth on the KTS Racing Triumph, two seconds up on Ballymena’s Neil Kernohan (Kernohan Racing Aprilia).

Cooper was leading the Lightweight race on Saturday on Farquhar’s Kawasaki 450 when he slid off unhurt at Church Bends in the first event of the day.

He finished on the podium in third in the Supersport race on the BPE by Russell Racing Yamaha behind Browne, also riding a Yamaha for Alister Russell’s team, and Jordan on the Jackson Racing by Prosper2 Ducati.