MORECAMBE Missile John McGuinness took his 23rd TT victory in the Senior race on Friday and smashed Bruce Anstey’s outright lap record from last year’s Superbike race with a spectacular speed of 132.701mph.
McGuinness finished 14.2s clear of James Hillier in the PokerStars Senior race with Ian Hutchinson coming home in third.
The race was initially red flagged on lap two and the restart began at 2:45pm over four laps instead of six.
The Honda Racing rider took full advantage of the restart and at Glen Helen it was McGuinness who set his sights on the lead, just a tenth ahead of Hutchinson. Anstey held onto fourth place ahead of Johnson and Dunlop, but Martin had a poor start and was left to fight his way back up from 13th place.
Hillier led at Ramsey still, but the advantage was down to six tenths of a second and now McGuinness was in second with Hutchinson down to third, four tenths further back. Anstey was in further with Dunlop fifth and Hickman in sixth.
An opening lap of 131.850mph was the fastest ever from a standing start and it gave McGuinness a lead of 1.2s over Hutchinson whilst Hiller was back to third a further 1.8s behind. Anstey, Dunlop and Hickman filled out the top six, whilst Martin was up to seventh.
The Morecambe Missile added half a second to his lead as he came through Glen Helen for a second time with the top five remaining the same and Martin who was to sixth. The lead was up to 1.9s at Ramsey although Martin was now up to fourth and behind Hutchinson on the road.
A new outright lap record of 132.701mph saw McGuinness’ gap shoot to 10.9s as Hutchinson overshot at Signpost. Hillier remained in third, but he was only 0.6s ahead of Martin as the Tyco BW ride also managed a lap in the 132mph club. Anstey was fifth whilst Dunlop was in sixth, but amazingly the first 11 riders all lapped at more than 130mph.
Lap three saw McGuinness’ lead increase by 1.5s. Hutchinson was five seconds clear of Hillier in third, whilst Dunlop had slipped back to eighth.
By the time McGuinness had reached Ramsey he was 17.5s ahead of Hutchinson whilst Hillier was further back by 6.6s and coming under increasing pressure from Martin.
Honda Racing’s McGuinness took his 23rd TT win and his first win of the week. He now equals the seven Senior TT wins of Mike Hailwood, whilst Hillier completed an excellent week in second also lapping inside the old lap record at 132.414mph. Hutchinson held onto third from Martin.
Dunlop and Cummins took fifth and sixth respectively whilst Anstey faded to eighth allowing Hickman to take seventh.
Hutchinson had the consolation of winning the overall Joey Dunlop TT Championship and with Dan Cooper finishing in 17th place; he secured the TT Privateer’s Championship.
James Hamilton was the rider involved in the incident near to the 11th milestone and he was taken by airmed to Nobles Hospital. There will be a further update on his condition soon.
Race results – top 10:
1. John McGuinness Honda / Honda Racing 01:09:23.903 130.481mph
2. James Hillier Kawasaki / Quattro Plant Muc-Off Kawasaki 01:09:38.117 130.038mph
3. Ian Hutchinson Kawasaki / Paul Bird Motorsport Ltd 01:09:44.730 129.832mph
4. Guy Martin BMW / Tyco BMW Motorrad Racing 01:09:52.148 129.602mph
5. Michael Dunlop BMW 01:10:03.010 129.267mph
6. Conor Cummins Honda / Honda Racing 01:10:07.202 129.139mph
7. Peter Hickman BMW / Briggs Equipment UK BMW 01:10:09.836 129.058mph
8. Bruce Anstey Honda / Valvoline Racing by Padgetts Moto 01:10:13.264 128.953mph
9. David Johnson BMW / Smiths Racing 01:10:20.869 128.720mph
10. Michael Rutter BMW / Penz13.com Bathams 01:10:23.255 128.648mph
