Ashcourt Racing’s Lee Johnston has taken his maiden Isle of Man TT win this evening in a shortened Monster Supersport race one.
It was a two-horse affair for a majority of the race as Johnston and Quattro Kawasaki’s James Hiller duked it out, pulling a four-second gap over third-placed man Peter Hickman on the Trooper Triumph.
The race was shortened to two laps while it was in full flow as rain on the west of the Island meant it was not safe to continue, so as they crossed the line on lap two, Johnston was named as the winner with a 3.641s advantage over Hillier.
Hillier took the initial advantage at Glen Helen on lap one, gaining a 1.367s advantage over Johnston with Gary Johnson third, Dean Harrison fourth and Jamie Coward fifth. Hillier had upped his game at Ballaugh with a further three-tenth gain with Hickman bouncing into fifth place.
Johnston cut the gap to 0.648s at Ramsey and then took the lead at the Bungalow, putting in a rapid sector to lead by 1.278s as Hickman moved into third place, Johnson fourth and Harrison fifth.
At the Grandstand, a 126.03mph lap put Johnston into a 1.989s lead with Hickman two seconds further back.
Johnston’s lead increased to a whopping 3.944s at Glen Helen on lap two but by Ballaugh, Hillier had hacked it back by three seconds to only trail by 0.656s. It was back to 0.757 at Ramsey as Michael Dunlop moved into fifth place and Johnson slipped down the order.
At the Bungalow, Hiller was 1.887s and at the line, Johnston cleared to 3.641s with Hickman, Harrison and Dunlop competing the top five.
Conor Cummins pushed the Milenco by Padgetts Honda past Johnson for sixth and Coward ended in eighth. Davey Todd, on the sister bike to Cummins’, was ninth with Ian Hutchinson completing the top ten.
