The short story is that Michael Dunlop won the Superstock race (1,000 cc production bikes), and Kiwi Bruce Anstey grabbed the Supersport (600 cc) event in the second day of racing on the beautiful Isle of Man.
The bad news is that Derek O’Brien, a four-time competitor at the TT, died in the Supersport race, making him the third casualty this year after two sidecar racers were killed in practice.
In Superstock, Joey Dunlop’s nephew, this year on a Street Sweep Kawasaki ZX10R, grabbed the lead from Guy Martin on lap 2 and was never headed. It was a big consolation for having a mechanical failure while dicing for the lead in the 600 cc Supersport race earlier in the day.
Martin and his TAS/Relentless Suzuki held on for third, falling behind 16-time TT victor John McGuinness on a Padgett’s Honda late in the race.
In the Supersport race that opened the day’s racing, New Zealander Bruce Anstey (“On his day, you don’t know where the hell he’s gone” – 16-time winner John McGuiness) collected the win on his Padgett’s Honda ahead of Keith Amor (KBMG Racing Honda), and Guy Martin on his TAS/Relentless Suzuki. Amor’s second place was particularly impressive as he’d been hospitalized on Saturday for a shoulder injury following a crash.
The next racing is set for Wednesday June 8, when the second Supersport race will go off, along with the second sidecar race and the TT Zero electric bike one-lap demo race.
The surname of the talented Irish racer and former Manx GP winner who lost his life in the 600 SS race is actually ‘Brien’ and not ‘O’Brien.’