John
McGuinness scorched to his 12th TT victory when he took today’s delayed
6-lap Superbike race, coming home ahead of young rivals Guy Martin and
Ian Hutchinson. Postponed from Saturday and further delayed by two hours
due to damp and misty conditions, the race eventually got underway at
12.45pm and the HM Plant Honda rider put in his usual quick first lap to
head the field.
With an opening lap speed of 127.804mph, despite a few damp patches,
McGuinness led Martin by 4.5 seconds with Hutchinson in third ahead of
Martin Finnegan and Ian Lougher but the Hydrex Honda of Martin was
making a fight of it and the gap had only extended by half a second at
Ramsey Hairpin. However, a blistering run over the Mountain saw him
break the class lap record at 128.279mph and a perfect pit stop saw his
lead rocket up to 17 seconds - from here on in his lead was never under
threat.
Martin suffered at both pit stops and having done the hard work of
overhauling Hutchinson and Finnegan on the road, on both occasions he
had to do it all over again but he managed to achieve the feat and
continued to press hard. McGuinness, whose lead was up to 36 seconds at
the end of lap four, rode to his signals for the remaining 75 miles
though and allowed his advantage to drop down to 26 seconds at the
chequered flag.
It was win number 12 for the Morecambe man, the third highest total in
history, and he led home Martin and Hutchinson with the top six being
completed by Finnegan, Lougher and Ryan Farquhar. Adrian Archibald took
seventh ahead of Conor Cummins and Ian Armstrong whilst the excellent
newcomer Steve Plater won the last of the silver replicas. There were
also impressive performances from fellow first timers Keith Amor in 14th
and Gary Johnson in 20th. Indeed, the honour of the fastest lap speed
ever set by a newcomer fell to Amor whose last lap was a superb
123.750mph.
McGuinness’ total of 12 wins was matched just a few hours later when
Dave Molyneux came from behind to take the opening F2 Sidecar race,
making it a doubly successful day for the HM Plant Honda team. Partnered
for the first time by Rick Long, who equalled the late Wolfgang
Kalauch’s passenger record of 7 TT wins, the duo overcame all their
problems in practice to overhaul long time race leaders John Holden and
Andrew Winkle on the final lap, winning at an average speed of
111.668mph.
The Manx pairing of Nick Crowe and Dan Sayle led in the early stages but
after catching and passing Molyneux on the road, they were soon reported
as touring at Quarry Bends and retired just a mile up the road at Sulby
Crossroads whilst another pre-race favourite Klaus Klaffenbock and
Christian Parzer only got as far as Ballacraine. Holden and Winkle then
seized the lead and they led the field by just under 9 seconds at the
end of the opening lap with Molyneux overtaking Steve Norbury and Scott
Parnell for second.
However, Moly had now got the bit between his teeth and as he got more
and more dialled in with both the circuit and his machine, he began to
eat into Holden’s lead and going into the final lap it was less than two
seconds. Norbury was holding on to a safe third ahead of Allan
Schofield/Peter Founds and Simon Neary/Stuart Bond whilst Conrad
Harrison/Kerry Williams and Nigel Connole/Jamie Winn were flying through
the field from their start numbers of 24 and 25 respectively.
At the head of the field though, Molyneux and Long were in the
ascendancy and with the fastest lap of the race, 112.736mph, they were
able to not only reel in Holden and Winkle but also to pull away and
they completed the three laps exactly six and a half seconds clear.
Norbury and Parnell held on for third, the Yorkshire driver’s seventh
successive podium and tenth in total, with Neary getting the better of
Schofield for fifth. Connole came home in sixth ahead of Harrison with
the top ten completed by Tony Elmer/Darren Marshall, Glyn Jones/Chris
Lake and Andy Laidlow/Patrick Farrance.
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