Browne and Jordan secure wins at Armoy road races

Mike Browne won the Supertwin opener and Paul Jordan took victory in the first Supersport race of the weekend at the Armoy road races on Friday.

Browne led throughout the seven-lap Supertwins race on his Paton, holding off the challenge of Aprilia-mounted Jordan to win by just five hundredths of a second at the chequered flag and take his ninth career success at the meeting.

Circuit newcomer, seven-time North West 200 winner Richard Cooper, was just two tenths of a second adrift of Jordan in third.

Jordan got off to an indifferent start and occupied third spot in the early stages but after battling his way past Cooper he set about giving chase to Browne in the sundrenched conditions.

His pursuit of the pacesetter included a new lap record for the class on lap four at an average speed of 101.160mph, inside his previous benchmark of 100.694 that he set last year.

Despite that, last year's double Supertwins winner was unable to overhaul the Republic of Ireland rider, with Cooper managing to stay well in touch with the leading two on his KMR Kawasaki.

The top three were all inside the previous lap record by the end of the race.

Michael Sweeney finished fourth, with Dominic Herbertson and Sean Brolly rounding out the top six.

The Supersport outing saw another thrilling battle at the front between Browne and Jordan.

The Magherafelt rider got the better of his rival on this occasion for his fourth Armoy victory and his second in the Supersports, his previous success having come back in 2018.

Browne again set the early pace on his Yamaha, with Jordan and Manxman Joe Yeardsley in close company as the trio pulled out an advantage over the remainder of the field at the head of affairs.

Browne managed to hold off the Jackson Racing Ducati rider until early on the final lap of seven, Jordan getting the better drive out of the Armoy chicane and into Robbo's Corner to assume the lead.

The fastest lap of the race, one minute 43.502 seconds, 104.624, on his final circuit, helped Jordan triumph by 0.023 seconds over Browne, with Yeardsley a further three seconds in arrears in the final podium place.

Cooper, Herbertson and Sweeney completed a high-quality top-six leaderboard.

Earlier in the day, Browne set the fastest lap speed in qualifying for the feature Open class.

The Cork rider, who took a four-timer at last year's meeting, lapped at 106.788mph on his Honda Fireblade in the big bike category, two tenths of a second quicker than nearest rival Jordan, who recorded 106.573.

Phil Crowe was third in the qualifying leaderboard on 106.389, followed by Sweeney (105.796), Herbertson (105.231) and Manx newcomer Nathan Harrison (104.751).

Jordan topped the times in Supersport Next Generation qualifying with a speed of 105.094mph, well ahead of BPE by Russell Racing Yamaha rider Browne on 103.781 and Sweeney at 102.309.

Manx duo Yeardsley and Marcus Simpson occupied fourth and fifth in the standings.

Jordan's lap speed was the quickest ever set in Supersport qualifying, bettering the previous benchmark set by Michael Dunlop.

Jordan was the pick of the Supertwins as the Magherafelt rider circulated at 101.392mph, with Browne second at 100.277 and Sweeney third on 99.204.

Nottingham debutant Cooper, a four-time British champion, was best of the Lightweight Supersports while Chris Meyer was fastest in the Moto3 session.

A further 11 races are scheduled for Saturday, including the feature 'Race of Legends', the Open race and second outings for the Supersport and Supertwin machines.