The man who’s taken over Joey Dunlop’s unofficial title of King of the Mountain, John McGuinness, upped his total number of wins to 19, seven behind the fabled Dunlop’s total.
Meanwhile, Lancashire ace and top character Guy Martin remains the fastest guy never to win a TT after a bad week at the Isle of Man, having an axle problem in the Superbike TT that forced him to ride on a used rear tire for two laps, then having the Senior event cancelled due to bad weather.
That weather also denied McGuinness and his Padgett’s Honda a chance at win number 20. McGuiness’ Superbike TT win was a big one for him and for Honda, whose bikes took the first three spots. McGuinness easily fended off an early challenge from Australian rider Cameron Donald on the Wilson Craig Honda to win by 14 seconds, with effervescent Kiwi Bruce Anstey sealing the final place on the rostrum to complete a Honda 1-2-3.
The 40-year-old, who was celebrating his seventh Formula One/Superbike victory, also clocked the fastest lap of the race at 130.483 mph, but Conor Cummins’ 131mph effort from 2010 remains the record speed for the Superbike TT.
McGuiness’ second win of the week came in the Superstock race (roughly equivalent to Canadian-spec superbikes), his first win on the Island in that class. The Padgetts Honda star said he badly craved a victory in the production-based class, and punched the air in delight as he finally triumphed. He was joined on the podium by Northern Ireland’s Michael Dunlop and Ryan Farquhar.
The Supersport (600 cc) races fell to New Zealand veteran Bruce Anstey and Irishman Michael Dunlop, nephew of the revered Joey. In the first race, Anstey prevailed in a final lap thriller to take a popular victory from Wilson Craig Honda duo Cameron Donald and William Dunlop, whose brother Michael was retired from the race on his Yamaha R6 while holding a 16-second advantage on the third lap. It was Anstey’s ninth career victory at the TT races.
Later in the week Dunlop got his own back, the 24-year-old fending off the challenge of Australian Cameron Donald on Wilson Craig’s Honda, who finished as the runner-up for the third time this week. Dunlop’s fellow countryman Ryan Farquhar put his KMR Kawasaki in third, denying first Supersport race winner Bruce Anstey a second podium by just one hundredth of a second.
In the first race of the new BikerPetition.co.uk Lightweight TT class, Irishman Ryan Farquhar clinched his third victory at the Isle of Man TT races in dominant fashion as he won the inaugural Lightweight Supertwin race by almost half a minute. Farquhar started the race as the red-hot favourite following his North West 200 success on his KMR Kawasaki ER6 last month. His winning margin was 28.99 seconds after three laps from James Hillier, who claimed his maiden TT rostrum. Michael Rutter – whose pit crew included John McGuinness and TT veteran Steve Parrish – took third position in Farquhar’s KMR colours to cap a perfect day for the Northern Irishman, just five seconds behind Hillier.
Both sidecar races went to Dave Monyneux and Patrick Ferrance, piloting a 600 cc DMR rig.
