Wednesday June 10, 2009 at 10:01am
Ian Hutchinson on the Padgetts Honda took his second TT win in one day by winning the Royal London 360 Superstock race.
It was one of the closest TT races seen so far this race week with Guy Martin on the Hydrex Honda and Hutchinson just fractions of seconds apart. Martin once again had to settle for second place and Keith Amor on the Wilson Craig Honda picked up another third place.
The race was action packed and initially Amor took the lead until John McGuinness took over breaking the lap record with an average speed of 128.538mph. Bruce Anstey on the Relentless Suzuki had more bad luck as he retired to the pits on the first lap.
Martin seized the lead by just 0.23secs early in lap two but as the front runners descended the Mountain it was Hutchinson who had hit the front. The lap record was broken again on this lap by Hutchinson with a speed of 129.212mph as the riders came in for their pit stops.
The pit stop was crucial for the men at the front and Hutchinson’s crew struggled to get his fuel cap closed losing him vital time. This allowed Martin to grab the lead again and gave him a seven second advantage, this reduced to three seconds by the time they had reached Glen Helen. Hutchinson continued to reel in Martin and at Ramsey Hairpin there was just 0.3secs between them.
Into lap four and Martin still had the advantage but by just 0.05secs he pulled that out to 1.2secs at Ballaugh but then the back markers came into play. Once again by Ramsey Hutchinson had the lead by just 1.2secs. He gapped Martin over the mountain to take the Superstock win. He also broke the lap record once again with a speed of 129.746mph.
Hutchinson said: “I can’t believe that. I really wanted it. After my first win earlier today I thought that was my win for the week. I still wanted this win though so I watched my boards and I didn’t feel I was riding well at the start. I lost time in the pits and my boards was showing -7secs. At one point Keith Amor passed me but I didn’t’ want to get held up so I passed his so I could do my own thing. 129mph is incredible we are getting close to Superbike times. Dunlop tyres have pulled out all the stops after all these are road bikes for road use.”
Martin said: “Its just sinking in, second again. Fair play to Hutchy. I caught backmarkers in awkward places and over the Mountain I lost my momentum. What can I say? Maybe we went the wrong way with the gearing but again it is three Hondas up here – come on!”
Amor said: “I gave that everything I shoved so hard. Ian caught me and I tried to go with him but I started making mistakes so I decided to stay put and take third.”
The next Supersport race is today at 10:45 for further up dates visit www.iomtt.com.