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.