Morecambe’s John McGuinness completed a TT double in the Isle of Man when he led from start to finish to win today’s Strand Shopping Centre Senior event. It was a successful start and finish to race week for McGuinness as he won the first solo event – the Superbike TT – on Sunday.

The six-lap 226 mile race gave McGuinness his eighth TT victory.

McGuinness was the first to make an impression on the race and by Ramsey Hairpin on lap one held a five seconds lead over Ian Lougher with Adrian Archibald just holding off Ryan Farquhar for third place. By the end of the lap Archibald had not only held off Farquhar but overtaken Lougher to move into second place, nine seconds behind McGuinness. Two retirements at the end of the lap were Superstock winner Bruce Anstey and local star Paul Hunt.

McGuinness’s opening lap was timed at 127.326 miles an hour, a new lap record, but Archibald started to nibble away at the lead on lap two and by Ramsey Hairpin it was down to six seconds. Unfortunately, soon after, Archibald was reported to be touring at Guthries and his race was over.

By the time the Grandstand was reached McGuinness had a cushion of 24 seconds from Richard Britton who had stormed up the mountain to move into second position, the order being McGuinness, Britton, Lougher, Martin Finnegan, Guy Martin and Ryan Farquhar.

After the lap two pit stops had been completed the positions changed again with Lougher now second and Britton third, but Britton had regained second position by Ballaugh Bridge. A retirement on this lap was Ryan Farquhar who went out at Parliament Square in Ramsey. While all the to-ing and fro-ing was going on McGuinness was moving serenely along and by the end of lap three his advantage over Britton was 23 seconds, Britton in turn being four seconds ahead of Lougher.

There was drama at the end of the lap when flames were seen coming from the machine of David Paredes from Argentina and firemen, with extinguishers, were quickly on the scene.

The end of lap four saw McGuinness holding a 33 seconds advantage over Britton with Lougher a further four seconds away. Unfortunately, Britton had major problems when exiting the pit lane after refuelling. His chain came off the sprocket and while he was able to get going again the delay dropped him down to fifth position. This brought Guy Martin up into third.

McGuinness took a 38 seconds lead into the final lap with Lougher holding a 28 seconds advantage over Guy Martin who was followed by Finnegan, There was no change over the final circuit with McGuinness finishing 34 seconds in front of Lougher who in turn was 19 seconds ahead of Martin. The latter held on to third place, beating Finnegan by just one second, to take his first ever podium position. Behind Finnegan were Richard Britton and Jun Maeda.

McGuinness’s race time was 1 hour 49 minutes 15.16 seconds, an average speed of 124.324. Lougher was second at 123.670 with Martin (123.326) third. 

ENDS