TEAM Appleyard/Macadam Racing’s Keith Farmer showed maturity to bring home his Yamaha R6 in fifth place in the final race at Brands Hatch to win the British Supersport Championship.

Keighley-born team manager Robin Appleyard believes the Northern Ireland rider from County Tyrone fully deserved the title.

Appleyard said: "He won nine races throughout the gruelling season which started back in March when he stepped in to take up the seat from the team’s original selection for the ride, Luke Jones, who badly damaged a hand when crashing during pre-season testing."

Farmer had the opportunity to wrap up the series at Assen in Holland at the penultimate meeting but failed to pick up a single point.

The Yamaha R6 rider was therefore left needing seven points going into the last two races at Brands to beat off the challenge of nearest rival Andrew Irwin.

Despite claiming pole position in Saturday’s Sprint Race, he crashed out on the opening lap to take the title down to the wire.

The pit lane team had to burn the midnight oil to ensure Farmer's bike was fit for Sunday’s feature race.

Fully aware of what he had to do in that final race, Farmer adopted a cautious approach, tucking in behind the leaders to claim fifth place he needed.

Appleyard, who himself is a previous British 125 Champion, paid tribute to his whole team.

Dedicating the win to main sponsor Dougie Macadam, he said: "Many congratulations to Keith who has been great throughout the season and shown what an accomplished rider he is.

"However he could not have done without the backroom boys and a big 'thank you' has to go to them. They have shown complete commitment from start to finish."