IoM TT News
Ian Hutchinson won a drama-filled and heavily delayed PokerStars Superbike race today. The Padgetts Honda rider came home over 33 seconds clear of Michael Dunlop with Cameron Donald clawing his way back from 13th to claim third.
Manxman Conor Cummins seemingly had the race in the bag and, after a stunning opening lap of 131.511mph, just a whisker outside the outright lap record, had a commanding 21 second lead at the end of the fourth lap but problems at the second pit stop saw that whittled down to four seconds and he was soon reported as a retirement at Laurel Bank.
Heavy mist in the Douglas area saw the original 12.00pm start time pushed back to 3.30pm and when it did finally get underway, mist still lay on the bottom two miles of the course.
Fifteen time champion John McGuinness forged an early lead, the HM Plant Honda rider holding a slender 0.08second advantage over Cummins at Glen Helen with Hutchinson and Donald in third and fourth. However, McGuinness was reported touring along the Sulby Straight eventually given as a retirement in the same spot but that mattered little to Cummins who was by now setting a ferocious pace.
A stunning opening lap of 131.511mph gave him an eight-second lead over Hutchinson with Guy Martin, Adrian Archibald, Dan Stewart and Ian Lougher close behind but Donald had overshot at the Nook and lost a lot of time, rejoining the circuit in 13th at the end of the first lap.
Lap 2 and Cummins continued to extend his advantage while Hutchinson, now the leader on the road, was edging clear of Martin in the battle for the remaining podium positions. Cummins’ second lap was again in excess of 131mph with Hutchinson and Michael Dunlop also above 130mph, the Northern Irishman now up to fourth behind Martin.
Archibald was holding on to fifth with Lougher in sixth and Donald already having climbed back up to seventh. Meanwhile, Stewart had dropped to ninth and lost more time at the pits, dropping outside of the top ten.
The new pit-lane speed limit had already claimed its first victim with Carl Rennie receiving a 30-second penalty but with a 20-second lead, Cummins was controlling affairs from his signals with Hutchinson pulling further ahead of Martin, the latter named circulating in close formation with Dunlop.
Archibald was still well in contention in fifth with Donald now ahead of Keith Amor on the sole surviving HM Plant Honda for sixth. Lougher was now in eighth with Ryan Farquhar and Bruce Anstey completing the top ten at half race distance.
Cummins held a near 22-second lead when he came in to the pits for his second pit stop with Hutchinson now a similar distance clear of Martin in second, Dunlop, Archibald and Donald still occupying the top six.
However, Cummins’ McAdoo Kawasaki refused to fire when he left the pits and his advantage was disappearing rapidly, down to four seconds when he eventually got going. Martin was also in trouble, the second high profile rider to receive a 30-second penalty and this dropped him back to fifth, Archibald and Donald now moving up to third and fourth respectively.
There was more drama in store when Cummins failed to go through Glen Helen on the fifth lap and news eventually filtered through that he’d stopped with mechanical trouble at Laurel Bank, cruel luck for the Ramsey rider.
This handed the lead to Hutchinson and with a commanding 50-second lead, the Bingley rider was on course for his fourth TT victory and he duly completed the last two laps to complete an excellent ride, also becoming another rider to join the exclusive 130mph+ club.
Martin was second on the road but still fifth on time whilst just behind him Dunlop, Donald and Amor were having a ferocious short-circuit style dice on the roads, the battle allowing the Australian to overhaul Archibald for the final podium place.
At the chequered flag, Dunlop secured a brilliant second place on the Robinson Concrete/Street Sweep Honda, less than 10 seconds clear of Donald. Martin eventually took fourth, the time penalty costing him second place, with Archibald and Amor rounding out the top six, the last named the fastest man on the final lap at 129.608mph.
Lougher completed a strong ride in seventh place with Michael Rutter doing likewise on his Superstock-spec Bathams Honda in eighth. Stewart regrouped for ninth with Farquhar completing the top ten on his MSS Colchester Kawasaki, Anstey one place further back in 11th.
Dan Kneen kept the local flag flying in 12th just ahead of Ian Mackman whilst Davy Morgan stole an early march in the race for the Privateer’s Championship in an excellent 14th place, Stephen Oates, Jimmy Moore, Paul Dobbs and James McBride filling the top five positions in this new Championship that recognises the efforts of privately funded teams and riders.
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TT Superbike Results – Positions at the end of final (lap 6)
Pos No. Rider Lap Time Lap Speed Machine/Entrant Grow Time Avg Speed
1 4 Ian Hutchinson 1000cc Honda / Padgetts Motorcycles 17 46.17 127.398 01 46 31.82 127.502
2 7 Michael Dunlop 1000cc Honda / Street Sweep/Robinson Concrete 17 29.52 129.419 01 47 05.75 126.828
3 6 Cameron Donald 1000cc Suzuki / Relentless Suzuki by TAS Racing 17 28.57 129.536 01 47 15.40 126.638
4 8 Guy Martin 1000cc Honda / Wilson Craig Racing 17 29.22 129.456 01 47 18.05 126.586
5 9 Adrian Archibald 1000cc Suzuki / AMA Racing Team 17 40.90 128.031 01 47 21.72 126.514
6 5 Keith Amor 1000cc Honda / H M Plant Honda 17 27.99 129.608 01 47 24.11 126.467
7 3 Ian Lougher 1000cc Kawasaki / Blackhorse Kawasaki 17 56.59 126.165 01 48 45.20 124.895
8 16 Michael Rutter 1000cc Honda / Batham’s Honda 17 44.12 127.643 01 49 32.47 123.997
9 13 Daniel Stewart 1000cc Honda / Wilcock Consulting 17 45.14 127.522 01 50 02.24 123.438
10 12 Ryan Farquhar 1000cc Kawasaki / MSS Colchester Kawasaki 17 57.30 126.082 01 50 02.81 123.428
11 1 Bruce Anstey 1000cc Suzuki / Relentless Suzuki by TAS Racing 18 08.68 124.764 01 50 07.67 123.337
12 18 Dan Kneen 1000cc Suzuki / Manx Gas / Marks Bloom Racing 18 07.56 124.892 01 51 15.26 122.088
13 24 Ian Mackman 1000cc Suzuki / 2 MACHS 18 22.99 123.146 01 51 22.28 121.960
14 28 Davy Morgan 1000cc Suzuki / CSC Branson Racing 18 10.12 124.599 01 51 31.16 121.798
15 34 Stephen Oates 1000cc Suzuki / Hallett Aviation/Road & Racing 18 18.31 123.670 01 51 39.72 121.642
Motorcycles
16 21 John Burrows 1000cc Suzuki / BE Racing 18 19.38 123.550 01 51 40.65 121.625
17 31 Rico Penzkofer 1000cc BMW / Penz13.Com Racing Team 18 14.84 124.062 01 51 58.68 121.299
18 33 Jimmy Moore 1000cc Yamaha / East Coast Racing 18 10.49 124.557 01 52 04.99 121.185
19 26 Paul Dobbs 1000cc Yamaha / Dave East Engineering 18 22.10 123.245 01 52 23.08 120.860
20 27 James McBride 1000cc Yamaha / Downview Finance / Pazzo Racing 18 18.13 123.691 01 52 36.17 120.626
21 25 Ian Pattinson 1000cc Yamaha / Phase One Endurance 18 21.36 123.327 01 53 02.84 120.152
22 37 Luis Carreira 1000cc Suzuki / Benimoto Suzuki Cetelem 18 18.50 123.649 01 53 12.04 119.989
23 17 Mark Miller 1000cc BMW / Penz13/SK Support 18 22.48 123.202 01 53 59.12 119.163
24 20 Steve Mercer 1000cc Yamaha / G Forces / SMR Road Racing 20 25.20 110.862 01 54 20.92 118.784
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