Bruce Anstey has won his 10th TT finishing in front of a determined Ian Hutchinson. The result is Anstey’s first Superbike success at the Isle of Man.
Ian Hutchinson started the first Tourist Trophy race in style, flying over the mountain course with an average speed of 130.959mph on the first lap. Second lap, Hutchinson clocked a similar lap, average speed being 130.901mph this time around. By now his gap over Anstey is 4,4 seconds.
This didn’t seem to bother Anstey too much as he put his head down and finished fourth lap with an average speed of 131.333mph. At this moment he was just 0.2 seconds behing Hutchinson before the second pit stop.
Hutchinson led the race coming down on lap five, and it looked like he was charging for the victory on his PBM Kawasaki. But Bruce Anstey was not letting this Tourist Trophy race get away from him as he took the lead and stormed his Valvoline Padgetts Honda to the checkered flag, finishing his last lap with an average speed of 131.797mph.
Hutchinson had to settle for second place while James Hillier took advantage of Michael Dunlop’s crash at the Nook on the last lap to take third place. The pre-race favourite John McGuinness finished in 4th while William Dunlop on the Tyko BMW concluded the top five.
Among the DNF riders where favorites Guy Martin (mechanical fault), Gary Johnson (screen broke on lap 4) and Conor Cummins.
Foto: iomtt.com