Ryan Farquhar - Back on the Road

Trevor, he threw his leg over the bike and,

you know, he just says, "Good luck, keep her steady."

And he just turned round and gave me this strange look.

Away he went and...

You know, we waited and waited and there was no sign of Trevor.

There was maybe four or five bikes.

I heard the helicopter. I went down to the awning and looked across

and I could see the helicopter hovering

and I thought, "Something not right, here."

And the next thing, Johnny Barton came down.

He is the rider liaison officer

and he says, "You need to come with me."

This programme contains strong language.

We start with news that Dungannon's Ryan Farquhar...

He was quitting the sport

following the death of his uncle and fellow racer Trevor Ferguson...

One of our most successful ever road racers

has decided to come out of retirement.

Ryan Farquhar is one of Northern Island's

most successful ever road racers.

He has won more than 200 times...

This is what I want to do. My wife is 100% behind me.

Get you sorted out for breakfast.

-I hate school.

-Did you get your homework done?

-Didn't have any.

-I didn't have any.

I was stuck on the Isle of Man, you know,

after the shock of what happened.

You know, my mind was doing 500mph.

I started to think to myself, "I've got two young girls and, you know,

"there is more to life than just, you know, racing.

"I think I need to do other things with them."

I had a really stressful 2013,

you know, just running the team, had quite a few riders

and between bikes getting wrecked and, you know,

the pressure of dealing with a title sponsor and that,

I just lost control and I was in deeper than ever.

So once I got 2013 out of the way, I thought to myself,

"Well, the first thing I have to do, I have to...I have to make a living."

I thought the easiest thing for me to do is probably get back on a bike.

It was like a weight lifted off my shoulders when Ryan said,

"That's it, I'm not racing."

And then it was just about...about over a year later

and Ryan sat me down and said,

"Now, I've got something to ask you."

Was it, "Something I want to ask you" or, "Something I want tell you"?

Aye. Well, you made out...

I think you made out that it was something you wanted to ask me.

But then, it's like everything -

you know, what do I do in that situation?

Say, "Right, don't"?

At the end of the day, he is my husband

and whatever he decides to do, you know, I have to be there

to support his decision.

And that is our way of life,

that is the way that money comes into our household

and you have all these things to think of.

You know, I decided that I'm going to get back on a bike.

I'll only do six or eight meetings, sort of, still...

I can have a life outside of racing

We'll get the guns sorted.

You'll not get rid of that down here in Dungannon, will you?

Look at your man, his eyes are cut out from him,

it's that long since he's seen daylight.

The first time I met Jeremy would have been when the two of us

went to ride Roger Winfield's bikes at Phillip Island.

You know, he has been great for me and my sponsors

and, you know, a bit of craic.

I've took him shooting, he's took me playing golf,

you know - we've done loads of things together.

Pull!

GUNSHOTS

He is very competitive in everything he does -

whether it's shooting or playing pool or playing golf.

He - Jeremy - is very competitive.

I wouldn't say I'm not competitive, but...

HE LAUGHS

McWilliams has competed at the top level

as a short-circuit rider.

With almost 50 years of racing experience between them,

Ryan Farquhar and Jeremy McWilliams still have the hunger to compete.

Our whole careers, our careers were completely different.

We were running side by side - he was roads and I was circuits.

We didn't really...

Didn't mix at all, you know, well, at the beginning.

Racers aren't the easiest to get on with.

They are always thinking about number one, they're alpha males,

and alpha males don't normally mix very well with other alpha males.

It's not often you are up this time of the morning, Jeremy,

to go dirt riding.

LAUGHTER

It doesn't matter if Jeremy hurts himself

cos he does fuck all all week.

He just lies in the house, watches TV and tweets.

Everything we do is reaction time and...

I can't slow my reaction time down.

As soon as I see it, I want to hit it.

Whenever it comes to buying drink, he isn't as fast!

THEY LAUGH

He'll always try to weigh things up to suit himself.

He is very good at shooting.

He is very good at golf cos he gives himself maximum handicap.

He is very good at pool, particularly on his own pool table,

because he plays by Ryan's rules and nobody else's rules.

People watching this programme say we don't get on,

but it's all a bit of banter.

He enjoys the craic. I really enjoy it, you know?

That's just the way we are.

Whenever I go to build a complete new bike, you know,

I just wheel in a bog-standard road bike,

it's a commuting bike.

First thing to do is just pull the bike to bits.

I'm just left with a bare frame.

There is a lot of stuff on that frame -

there's brackets that we don't need, cutting and grinding, welding,

starting to bolt on the parts that, you know,

I have either had made or I buy from Kawasaki.

And eventually, we end up with a bike

that is sitting ready to be wheeled on to the grit

at the North West 200 or the Isle of Man TT or wherever.

I get a buzz from taking on,

you know, the factory-supported teams and that,

you know, on what I used to call "garden shed tuning".

He is like a nutty professor, up in his garage, there.

No education at all, really, ever. I never liked school.

I didn't get on very well at school.

I was looking to do motor vehicle studies, you know, and work on...

..like, cars and things.

But the teacher that took that, you know,

I tortured him for a few years and he wouldn't let me into the class,

so I had to go and do cookery instead.

I enjoy this side of it, you know?

It's whenever you have too much,

when you have a massive workload, and, you know...a...

..a very short space of time, that's when it gets stressful.

The bikes weren't the best in 2014.

We have some issues. We did discuss it.

I told him they were shit.

I think we lost out a bit last year,

with no testing on it prior to the North West.

Aye, there's no doubt about that, but...but you know yourself,

I'm just a one-man band, trying to put five bikes together.

But we are well ahead of the game this year.

-Are you going to take the quickest one again?

-Uh-huh.

-The noise.

-The noise!

It comes from God.

ENGINE REVS

I need track time prior to the road race season,

it's pretty important, you know - it's very important for me

because John McGuinness and Conor Cummins going,

they're two competitors of mine.

We've come here to try and win the team event

and not the individual, and that is...

That is going to be a real struggle.

I'm not a short-circuit racer.

I am a road racer and there is no pressure on me here.

I am just here, really, to just get a few points.

The top five riders in the team score points.

You can say it's half-work, half-holiday,

where, for Jeremy, it's nearly all work for him,

cos the pressure is on him to score maximum points for the British team.

ENGINES REV

ANNOUNCEMENT OVER TANNOY

We had a massive problem with the bikes blowing oil

out of the overflow, and the Aussies,

they complained the officials

so that the scrutineers came, looked at the problem and that,

so they put a stop on the bikes that were blowing oil out.

Having a frigging nightmare.

It was getting on to the other riders' visors

so they couldn't see where they were doing,

so we are just improvising.

Just like a couple of old Castrol GTX bottles underneath

as a secondary catch tank

and hopefully, they will do the job for a race.

This might cure it.

-COMMENTATOR:

-McWilliams versus Cameron Donald -

two legends, head to head.

ENGINES REV

It's McWilliams and Metcher now,

master and pupil from their World Super Sport days.

McWilliams wins race two. What a turnaround.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Yes!

I'm a bit happier now, as you can tell.

We took a bit of a hammering in the first one, but we're coming back.

They have machine issues, like we all have,

so...it could be anybody's yet.

Yeah...you always bring it down, don't you, Farquhar?

-It's always my fault.

-It is, yeah.

Are you up for it tomorrow?

The overall team score is only taken

from the top-ten-scoring riders, cumulatively.

-Right.

-Is that understandable?

-I didn't realise it was like that.

-Want me to write it down for you?

-At least now we know.

We are not all as bright as you, Jeremy.

I'm just a bricklayer from Morecambe.

So we have a better chance.

We had our best chance today, because going into tomorrow,

we've got more top-ten... more top-ten UK riders

than they have got Aussie riders.

Just run them off into the gravel.

Not like you were trying to do to me this morning!

-Who?

-You.

-Fuck off!

LAUGHTER

Cheeky bastard, ye.

Next thing, up the inside of me. Lifted me across...

-You want me to fucking ride over the top of him?

-On top of me.

THEY CHAT

-Is that what you're talking about?

-Yeah, yeah.

ENGINES REV

CRASHING AND REVVING

All I know, there is oil on the circuit

and Jeremy and some other lad went down - I almost went down.

Lost the front, you know, but...

All hot and heavy at the front.

-COMMENTATOR:

-More drama for McWilliams. Has he stalled?

-Try it one more time, just one more time.

-All right.

Ryan Farquhar has been one of the most-consistent performers so far.

I was riding, as well,

on as short a circuit as I've probably ever rode.

I just kept chipping away.

And that is a 1-2-3 from Australia, but if the UK all make it home,

they should still be leading on points overall.

APPLAUSE

Have you managed to score points again?

It all just turns to shit, at the drop of a clutch.

Just...the clutches are crap in them,

and we haven't been able to fix it,

because we didn't test them before we came here.

When you get into the last round,

one, that we are in a position to win the overall award, you know,

we've never done that.

The Aussies have never been beat before.

And two, there is a realistic chance

of winning the Island Classic overall, on points.

Even if they have their best result, we can still win the overall,

as long as we get five bikes to the finish.

If we don't win this, guys, don't come back to the garage.

LAUGHTER

And it is Team UK in pole position - 23 points ahead.

TANNOY ANNOUNCEMENT

Oh, McWilliams makes a terrible start!

Really struggling with his clutch.

The Australians absolutely dominating this race.

The UK just need to get their top scorers home

and they've got the team win wrapped up.

In the individual competition, it's between Cummins and Farquhar.

They are neck and neck here.

And here come the British trio.

Ryan Farquhar leads Conor Cummins and Jeremy McWilliams.

-Jeremy is absolutely fucking gutted, isn't he?

-Well, no, I reckon...

you know, if anybody deserved to win it,

it had to be one of ours, and no better man than you, so...

You know, it's been a fantastic experience,

getting involved with all you guys, coming out here,

you showing us the ropes, you know,

you've been doing this here for, what, about 40 years now?

-50, probably.

-Probably 50 years, you know,

I'm just an old retired road racer that would come and kick your asses.

THEY LAUGH

Cheers!

It's great going out there at that time in the year

but because, you know, I run my own team,

it puts a massive pressure on me to get back, you know,

to get stuck into the bikes in the workshop again.

When things are at their peak,

say I'm building two or three new Supertwins, maybe a Superstock bike,

hundreds of times it's been after midnight

whenever I'm getting into bed.

I'm very lucky I have Karen because I haven't...

I'm not very good at sending e-mails and things like that

and every sponsor you deal with, you have to e-mail them

asking for the sponsorship, and then, if it's a trade sponsor,

you have to put in detail what you need from them.

I suppose, at the end of the day, it's really our business,

you know, I'm here to help him through the day

with whatever bits and pieces he needs done.

It's between the two of us and anybody else that helps Ryan

when he's at the race meetings, you know,

you're dependent on those folk,

whereas other big race teams employ guys to help,

whereas we just don't have the money to do that.

Whenever we are out at the likes of the TT and North West

competing against all these big teams, you know,

we are so proud that Ryan has done so well competing against them

and that's what it's been like for years.

He always said, like, we're sort of fur coat and no knickers,

and that's true, you know, it's not all about the money

and the big teams and the budget that they have.

At the end of the day, the business is all done on the track.

It's hard running a team to that extent,

you know, on a limited budget.

Every year, going back ten years, maybe more,

once the last sticker is put onto the last bike,

-it's like somebody lifts a massive weight off your shoulders.

-Yeah.

It's unreal. It's a weird feeling and once that happens,

well, the bikes, they're either good enough to win or they're not.

It's just, get on the bikes now and see how we go, you know,

and it's as simple as that.

Welcome to the Vauxhall International North West 200 for 2015.

It's event one of the North West 200,

the Vauxhall International North West 200.

The North West 200, you know, it's always a...

It's always a goal, you know,

to get on the podium, to get a win,

it's something really special.

So it's wide open but if you were betting, you'd put your money on Ryan Farquhar, would you not?

You most certainly would, or certainly a KMR machine.

And there is Jeremy McWilliams.

For me it's kind of a no-win situation, you know,

you're an ex-GP racer, you should be able to come to the North West

and win, and when I don't,

they go, "Those road racers are better than you!"

When the lights go out, this race is underway.

Ryan Farquhar is in no mood to be messed about here today.

Look at him.

Ryan always goes from the beginning

and he's very quick off the grid, he gets away.

It is still Ryan Farquhar out in front,

reasonably comfortably in front.

When I started really putting my mind to it,

I realised I could catch him a wee bit in some places.

Now McWilliams is closing in, that is the closest we've seen,

charging down the inside, surely he's not going to get his spot.

I knew that if I was to beat him,

I had to be in front of him on the coast road.

It must be Farquhar's race now.

He wasn't having any of that, was he, into Metropole?

And now he takes the chequered flag and McWilliams is second.

Ryan Farquhar takes his fifth win here at the North West 200.

He's been coming here for 19 years.

That has to be one of my best ever.

Couple of years ago, I never dreamt I'd even be on the grid again,

never mind sitting in the front row at the North West 200

and another one-two for KMR Kawasaki,

you know, it's just a fairy tale, really.

The second race, then, on the Saturday, I knew

Jeremy was up for it even more.

You know, you can get close to the win in the first race,

the pressure's on for race two.

MUSIC: Dogs Run In Packs by Rams' Pocket Radio

And when the lights go out, this race is underway.

# I was concerned, but taciturn

# And moving too slow

# So let me tell you about distance and why you gotta go... #

And number 77, Ryan Farquhar,

but right in his wheel tracks is Jamie Hamilton,

but look at the slipstream, these two again,

Jeremy McWilliams and Christian Elkin,

towing right up on the back of Hamilton,

looking for a way to get past him, that would put them forward wide.

It has put them...

That was so close!

# ..They got me at the back Making tracks... #

Trying to keep up with this man,

he's trying to keep up with Jeremy McWilliams, but he's going for...

-What was that?

-It was all over the place, sliding into the corner.

The two bikes, they were that evenly matched,

whenever Jeremy was in my slipstream, he was fit to...

Then he passed me on the brakes and I had to do the same.

And these two are pulling away together, aren't they?

It's McWilliams and Farquhar.

We were that close to each other, I'd look over at him

and he was giving me the fingers.

Oh, my goodness!

I reckon that's last one home buys the beers, isn't it?

You know, in the next straight or whatever,

I'd come out of his slipstream

and I'd go to the right-hand side of him and I'd give him the fingers

and we were just looking over and laughing.

I tried to wind him up a wee bit

when we got all that time in the slipstream,

to break his concentration a wee bit.

Whenever it come the last lap, he ran onto the dirty part of the track

over the camber of the road and gave it a handful and it went side-roads.

Oh! He nearly threw himself out of the seat.

I saw this and I thought, "Bloody hell, Jeremy,

"don't be crashing that bike, I need that for the TT for Lee Johnson!"

And Jeremy McWilliams, absolutely on the limit.

Ryan Farquhar has got a lot to do and it's not going to happen.

Jeremy McWilliams takes his second win here at the North West 200.

I enjoy the banter that you get from the road racing fraternity here

over that, so it's kind of nice

to stamp your authority on it and get a win, aye.

HE BREATHES DEEPLY

Like, even...

Even after this length of time, it still...

You know, when I think of that day, it just annoys me so much.

I started to think, you know, "Has something happened to the bike?"

That's why I kept beating myself up so much about it, but...

The police, they took the bike and...

You know, they bring scrutineers, or whatever, in to make sure

but the bike was 100%, you know, there was no mechanical failure.

It's one of those things, we can't turn the clock back

and we just have to move on with it.

It's not that you don't care, really, you just try

because that's what you do, you just try to blank it out,

and, you know, there is a time comes whenever you start thinking yourself,

you know, "Maybe I shouldn't be doing this."

Every rider thinks it's never going to happen to them, you know,

but like I say, it's like a...

It's like an addiction.

It must be the adrenaline rush, you know,

and the buzz you get from speed, you know, you get addicted to it,

just the same way a smoker gets addicted to nicotine.

It would be great at times if you could get, like a tablet,

you know, to counteract that... whatever it is in your system,

to get it away completely, but...

To be fair, like...

I do love racing and that's how I make my few quid,

to try and put bread and butter on the table.

So many times you could go out and meet people

and they'd say, "Will you get that man of yours off them bikes?

"He's going to get himself killed."

And see, people don't think about what they're actually saying to you.

If I was speaking to someone

and their son was in the Army or their husband was a policeman,

I would never say anything like that to them,

so as for saying that the riders are selfish,

you know, at the end of the day, Ryan is providing for me

and the girls and myself.

It's a dangerous sport that he does

but there are so many worse things. There's men out there

that don't attempt to provide for their family at all.

I just can't wait until the race was over and he comes back in,

and it's always been the same

and it's never going to be any different.

He's been so successful, he's not a rider that crashes, you know,

sometimes I just fear, will our luck run out?

Hard on the brakes into the Armoy village for the first time.

Looks like Farquhar is lining up...

Yeah, there he is, pulling out around the outside.

I've broken a few bones.

I broke my ankle and a couple of bones in my hand but apart from that

I've been very, very, very lucky for the mileage that I've done.

Farquhar, he's lining up McGee here,

by gum, he isn't half quick through there onto the Lagge Dam.

Exactly the same move. He's got the power there.

Lap record for Ryan. One minute 50.379.

There's people out there probably think we're all mad, but

when you ride a bike that's capable of doing 200-plus mile an hour

down a small country road

with no speed limit, you can go as quick as you want,

it doesn't really get much better than that

as far as a bonus goes, does it?

No such problem for Ryan Farquhar.

He exits the Balaney Cross for the final time.

A little look over the left shoulder.

Win number 12 around Armoy.

He's going to take the chequered cloth any moment now

to take that win and that new lap record.

MUSIC: My Number by Foals

I've asked all my sponsors along today, just for a day's craic,

you know, come, shoot a few clays,

then tonight we'll go back to my bar, we'll have a bite to eat.

# We don't need each other now... #

He told me he can't hit straight in front of the camera,

so let's get the camera back out again!

# Cos I feel, I feel alive

# I feel... #

-I think you just lost one.

-Aye.

Couldn't let him get away with a straight today, could we?

Not on his own day.

The best gun in the world and the best shells in the world,

it's the driver's the problem. Just have to keep practising.

# ..And you don't have my lover's touch.. #

For me, if you get to the end of the year and Ryan has got all the racing

over him and he's well, that's a successful year in my eyes.

Couldn't have done it without all my sponsors,

and everybody knows, and all my helpers and that there.

Probably the biggest one needs the biggest thanks of all,

is my wife Karen, how she puts up with me and everything she does.

-Hear! Hear!

-You're really not that bad!

APPLAUSE AND LAUGHTER

You know, and Jeremy as well, even though he's a pain in the ass

at times and he's took prize money off me at the North West again.

Just want to say a big thank you

and hopefully we can do it all again next year.

CHEERING

# I don't need your counsel

# And I don't need these city streets

# And I don't need that good advice

# Cos we can move beyond it now

# You don't have my number

# We don't need each other now

# The creed or the culture

# You don't have my lover's touch. #