Morecambe’s John McGuinness notched up his seventh TT victory when he won this afternoon’s Duke TT Superbike race in the Isle of Man by a margin of 36.3 seconds from Adrian Archibald with Martin Finnegan third. McGuinness’s time was 1 hour 49 minutes 25.73 seconds, an average speed of 124.124 miles an hour. Fastest lap was McGuinness’s second at 126.879.

Conditions were near-perfect with no mist or rain to spoil the day, apart from a few wet patches. A total of 66 riders faced the starter, looking for a share of the £80,000 prize fund.

The story of close racing which began in yesterday’s Sidecar TT was continued when news came through that little more than eleven seconds separated the first 12 riders at Glen Helen – about nine miles from the start – on the first lap with the fastest man in practice, John McGuinness, holding a narrow lead over Richard Britton. However, one of the favourites, Ryan Farquhar, who had put up the fourth fastest time in practice, didn’t make it that far! He retired at Union Mills, about three miles from the start.

McGuinness had stretched his lead over Britton to eight seconds by the end of the first lap, which he completed at an average speed of 126.359. Britton, in turn, had a five seconds advantage over the third placed man, Adrian Archibald. 

The leading positions remained unchanged until lap three when Archibald moved into second place ahead of Britton but McGuinness was still out on his own with a lead of 28 seconds over Archibald. Britton’s race was soon over, however, when he was forced to retire at Alpine Cottage on his fourth lap, leaving Martin Finnegan to come up into third place. 

McGuinness continued to hold off his pursuers and when he started his final lap had 34 seconds in hand over Archibald. A little more than 18 minutes later McGuinness took the chequered flag

having led the race from start to finish. Archibald was second, 36.3 seconds down, while Finnegan was one minute 16 seconds further back in third position. Fourth to sixth positions were filled by Ian Lougher, Raymond Porter and Guy Martin.

Three incidents were reported during the race, but none were believed to be serious. Darran Lindsay crashed at Cruickshank’s Corner in Ramsey and Nigel Davies at Signpost, the latter suffering leg injuries. David Coughlan was off at Governor’s Bridge but re-mounted and carried on.