Michael Dunlop stormed to victory in a thrilling four-lap Motorsport Merchandise Formula One TT race and although the Team Classic Suzuki rider took the win by over a minute from Bruce Anstey, a loose exhaust required the Valvoline Racing rider to make a second pit stop just after he’d set a new lap record of 126.261mph. He dropped back to fourth but edged out Ryan Farquhar for second in the closing stages of the final lap.
“I was up for a fight today and showed them what we could do,” said Dunlop afterwards. “Bruce’s bike is a lot lighter than mine and although he got ahead on the second lap, I stuck with him and was there or thereabouts. I dug really deep on the last lap to Glen Helen and when I saw a board saying ‘P1, +54’, I knew he must have ran into a bit of trouble. I was able to back it off a bit for the rest of the lap and the bike never missed a beat. We had a faultless pit stop and for us to beat a GP bike around here, well, what can you say, everything was just perfect.”
At Glen Helen first time around it was Farquhar who led Dunlop by just one second with Peter Hickman in third a further second back. Dean Harrison was fourth, half a second adrift of Hickman with James Hillier another half second back in fifth. Pre-race favourite Anstey was back in seventh just behind Gary Johnson but William Dunlop’s miserable Classic TT continued as he retired the Norton at Ballacraine.
Dunlop hit the front at Ballaugh where just 1.6s covered the top five but by the time they reached Ramsey Hairpin, Harrison was leading the Ulsterman by just 0.3s. Anstey was up into third ahead of Farquhar and Hickman but it was still incredibly tight with now only 1.3s splitting the top five!
Harrison’s run ended shortly afterwards though as he retired at the Mountain Mile and that handed the lead to Anstey whose first lap speed was a new lap record at 124.190mph. His lead over Dunlop was only 0.8s though with Farquhar in third, two seconds adrift. Hickman, Hillier and David Johnson completed the top six.
Anstey still led at Glen Helen second time around but Dunlop had closed ever so slightly to within 0.6s. Farquhar was still in third but had slipped six seconds behind Dunlop as Hickman, Hillier and Johnson maintained station in fourth to sixth.
As the lap wore on though, it was clear Anstey was turning up the wick and with a stunning new lap record, 126.261mph, his lead over Dunlop had shot up to 12.1s as he came into refuel at the end of the second lap. However, the Kiwi lost time when he had to have the exhaust bracket wired up and that handed the lead back to Dunlop as he rejoined the race. Farquhar was still in third ahead of Hillier, David Johnson and Gary Johnson but Hickman was out having retired at the 33rd Milestone.
Dunlop was leading by 1.1s at Glen Helen as the front runners started catching the later runners in the F2 class and he then found over four seconds on the run to Ballaugh to extend his advantage to 5.8s. Farquhar had responded to the pressure being exerted by Hillier too, the Dungannon man now 4.5s ahead in the battle for third.
From Ballaugh onwards though Anstey was in the ascendancy and he continually ate into the lead Dunlop had opened up and as they swept through Cronk ny Mona he was leading by a second. However, the Padgetts rider was in danger of being black flagged due to the exhaust having worked its way loose once more and he had to pit again to get it fixed, losing over a minute as a result.
That dramatic news gave Dunlop a comfortable lead of over half a minute from Farquhar with Hillier promoted up to third and as they went through Glen Helen for the final time, Anstey had dropped back down to fourth.
Dunlop now had the race under control and throughout the final lap he maintained a healthy advantage over Farquhar. He in turn was edging away from Hillier and all eyes now fell on Anstey to see if he could overhaul the Kawasaki man. Indeed, the gap was down to less than three seconds at Ramsey with just the final run over the Mountain to go.
With a final lap of 125.050mph, Dunlop took the win by over a minute and it was Anstey who came through for the second as he not only got the better of Hillier but also Farquhar too. The gap was 1.9s at the end and so Hillier was the rider to miss out in fourth with David Johnson and Jamie Coward rounding out the top six. Lee Johnston, Gary Johnson, Dan Kneen and Michael Rutter completed the top ten.
In the concurrently run Formula Two race, it was a start to finish victory for Ryan Kneen and he got the better of James Cowton by 11.9s although the latter did have the consolation of a new lap record of 113.458mph. Charles Rhys Hardisty took third.
