James Hind followed up on last night’s Lightweight MGP victory with another win at the Manx Grand Prix...

James Hind followed up on last night’s Lightweight MGP victory with another win at the Manx Grand Prix, only a year after making his Mountain Course debut, in today’s Manx Grand Prix Supporters Club Lightweight 2 Race.  The 19 year old rider from Market Rasen - fast becoming one of the rising stars of road racing - also finished third in the Dunlop Lightweight Classic TT Race that took place earlier in the week.

After Clerk of the Course Gary Thompson’s unprecedented decision to move the final Manx Grand Prix Races a day forward due to Friday’s poor weather forecast, the Manx Grand Prix Supporters Club Lightweight and Ultra Lightweight Race, reduced to three laps with a compulsory pit stop on lap 2, got underway on time at 12 noon.

Francesco Curinga, riding the Bemar Racing Team Paton, who finished runner up in last night’s Lightweight MGP Race 1, was first away following Andrew Farrell’s withdrawal. The Italian, as he had in last night’s race, led by two seconds on the opening sector but by Ballaugh, Hind had moved to the head of the field.

Dave Butler held third but behind him there was an outstanding performance from newcomer Andrea Majola, riding a Paton, who was fourth at Glen Helen but the Italian had dropped to fifth behind Michael Rees at Ballaugh. Majola was the fastest Newcomer B qualifier for the Newcomers Race but was forced to retire out of Tuesday’s race when leading.

Hind maintained a five second lead over the Mountain section and his opening lap of 115.54mph gave him a 3.5 second lead over second placed man Curinga (114.695mph).  Dave Butler (113.57mph) was well positioned in third – over thirty seconds ahead of fourth placed man Majola (110.52mph) but already 15 seconds down on the race leader with Michael Rees (110.42mph) completing the top five.

Curinga further reduced the deficit to race leader Hind to only 2 seconds by Glen Helen on the second lap but, as he had on the opening lap, Hind again stretched his lead after the first sector of the course, increasing his lead to 8 seconds by Ballaugh.

Coming into the pits for the compulsory stop at the end of the second lap, Hind held a 13.4 second lead over Curinga but dropped almost nine seconds in the pits which left Curinga only 4 seconds behind the race leader leaving the Grandstand which was down to only two tenths of a second by Glen Helen on the final lap.

However the race for the win followed the pattern of the first two laps with Hind extending his lead to over six seconds by Ballaugh and Hind came home to win with a final lap of 111.848mph, 11 seconds ahead of Curinga with Butler securing the final podium place 25 seconds further back, which meant it was the same podium as last night’s MGP Lightweight Race 1.  

Majola held on for fourth with Michael Rees completing the top five.