Road race star Furber makes debuts at Armoy and Aberdare

The Bishop's Castle bullet spent back-to-back weekends travelling to Armoy in Northern Ireland and then Aberdare Park Races in Wales – with varying degrees of success.

Furber, 36, is already an established rider at the Isle of Man TT races and Oliver's Mount in Scarborough, and has competed in the international North West 200 and Ulster GP races, both raced in Northern Ireland.

Armoy was a new track to the south Shropshire star but he still managed to return with some top results.

"It was my first time at this event so the track was new to me," he said.

"Just driving around the three-mile circuit for the first time I could tell it would be good.

"It's challenging with big jumps and tight technical corners but also very fast.

"Hitting a big jump in the road absolutely flat out in top gear is certainly enough to get your heart racing."

With a massive entry of riders all desperate to get out racing again, Furber was entered in two races – the Senior Open B, on his Kawasaki ZX6R and the Supertwin A race, on a Yamaha MT-07.

"I got a few sighting laps under my belt on the 600cc in mixed conditions before qualifying but only five laps of timed qualifying on the Yamaha supertwin," he said.

"Saturday was race day and my first race was the open on Clem Davies Racing ZX6R.

"I had a slow start but picked away during the seven-lap race, eventually getting past some of the riders I was stuck behind and I was able to improve my lap times to finish eighth.

"The supertwin race was a similar story as, after a steady start – having only had five laps on this bike – I chipped away at my lap times through the race and passed a couple of riders to finally get some space.

"On the last lap, things started to come together and I finished the weekend wishing I had another couple of races because I had found some pace towards the end.

"But I was happy to come away with two top 10 results on my first visit to Armoy.

"The DC Auto Repairs Newtown supertwin showed great potential and Clem Davies ZX6R was great fun to ride – and scarily fast."

Furber then packed his bags and immediately headed to Aberdare, where he was also making his debut.

But road racing is a dangerous enough sport at the best of times, so when the heavens opened in Wales all weekend, it was always going to prove to be a tricky test, even for someone as experienced on the roads as Furber.

"I took three bikes, which would have worked great if the sun was out but it became very hard work with torrential rain Friday and Saturday," he said.

"The paddock was a mud bath and the van was towed on and off the site.

"I didn't enjoy riding in those conditions on Saturday and decided to sit it out on the Sunday rather than risk wrecking the bikes.

"It was a big enough task to load up three muddy bikes and get the vans off the field.

"I'm sure we will try again next year as it's a unique little circuit and there was some great racing despite the weather.

"It was great to see Shrewsbury's James Evans pushing at the front."

Furber now hopes to head back to Oliver's Mount for the Gold Cup, September 18-19.