Superbike
TT - Monday 4th June 2007
John McGuinness scorched to his 12th TT victory when
he took today’s delayed 6-lap Superbike race,
coming home ahead of young rivals Guy Martin and Ian
Hutchinson.
Postponed from Saturday, and further delayed by two
hours due to damp and misty conditions, the race eventually
got underway at 12.45pm and the HM Plant Honda rider
put in his usual quick first lap to head the field.
With an opening lap speed of 127.804mph, despite a few
damp patches, McGuinness led Martin by 4.5 seconds with
Hutchinson in third ahead of Martin Finnegan and Ian
Lougher, but the Hydrex Honda of Martin was making a
fight of it and the gap had only extended by half a
second at Ramsey Hairpin. However, a blistering run
over the Mountain saw him break the class lap record
at 128.279mph and a perfect pit stop saw his lead rocket
up to 17 seconds - from here on in his lead was never
under threat.
Martin suffered at both pit stops and, having done
the hard work of overhauling Hutchinson and Finnegan
on the road, on both occasions he had to do it all over
again, but he managed to achieve the feat and continued
to press hard. McGuinness, whose lead was up to 36 seconds
at the end of lap four, rode to his signals for the
remaining 75 miles though, and allowed his advantage
to drop down to 26 seconds at the chequered flag.
It was win number 12 for the Morecambe man, the third
highest total in history, and he led home Martin and
Hutchinson with the top six being completed by Finnegan,
Lougher and Ryan Farquhar.
Adrian Archibald took seventh ahead of Conor Cummins
and Ian Armstrong, whilst the excellent newcomer Steve
Plater won the last of the silver replicas. There were
also impressive performances from fellow first-timers
Keith Amor in 14th and Gary Johnson in 20th. The honour
of the fastest lap speed ever set by a newcomer fell
to Amor whose last lap was a superb 123.750mph.
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