New award is to be named after the late Keith Farmer

THE memory of Clogher native, Keith Farmer, will be honoured at the Adelaide Irish Motorbike Awards in Belfast tomorrow night.

The four-time British champion, who tragically died suddenly in November 2022 at the age of 35, is having a new award named after him at the prestigious annual bash.

The new award – the BSB Breakthrough accolade – has been developed in conjunction with the British Superbike Championship and it will be presented to the Irish rider who has made the biggest impact in the series over the season.

Farmer is acknowledged by many as being one of the top short circuit riders to come from Ireland and his success at British Championship level is testament to that.

He won his first British title in 2011, clinching the National Junior Superstock Championship at the first attempt on a bike owned and run by his family. He then became the first competitor to immediately follow that up by winning the National 1000 Superstock Championship the very next season when he had joined forces with the late Paul Bird’s Kawasaki team.

Farmer then made the step up to the BSB paddock proper with then champion Shane Byrne as his team-mate but he struggled to have the same impact, as illness throughout the year took its toll.

Unbowed, the ‘Clogher Bullet, was soon back on top of the podium on a regular basis as he sealed his third British crown in the Supersport Championship in 2017 and in 2018, he achieved another double when he won the National Superstock title for the second time after switching to Moneymore’s TAS Racing.

Injuries hampered his racing career after that and in 2021 he announced his retirement, although he was still a regular in the BSB paddock as a mentor for Omagh’s Jamie Lyons.

In 2023, Farmer was posthumously awarded the Special Recognition Award at the annual Irish Motorbike Awards, which will again be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel on January 17th.

The event was attended by his two sisters, Kathy Valentine and Wendy Forsythe, and brother, David, who said in a statement issued at the time: “We are so proud of Keith’s motorcycling achievements and are honoured that the motorcycling community wanted to recognise him in this way.”