DOUBLE DELIGHT FOR THE ISLE OF MAN AS DAVE MOFFITT AND BILLY SMITH TAKE THE SUPERTWIN AND LIGHTWEIGHT RACES AT THE MANX GRAND PRIX

The second race of the day at the 2011 Manx Grand Prix, the Manx Radio SuperTwin and Lightweight class races got away at 2.15pm, following the earlier delay, and it was double delight for the Isle of Man as local Douglas racers Dave Moffitt and Billy Smith took the top honours.

Local TT racer Conor Cummins, whose father Billy was competing in the Lightweight Race, started the Race. Conditions were dry but Clerk of the Course Phil Taubman warned the riders of the threat of rain during the race. Fastest qualifier in the SuperTwins Phil McGurk had earlier pulled out of the race with a broken Crank sustained in qualifying earlier in the week leaving Dave Moffitt as the fastest qualifier.

And it was Moffitt who was first away on Glencrutchery Road followed by Shaun Anderson and Joe Phillips. Phil Harvey, starting from seventh on the grid on his 250cc Yamaha, had built up a 2 second lead over Moffitt with Phillips narrowly back in third. Joe Phillips moved past Moffitt by Ballaugh and closed the gap to just over a second from Joe Harvey, and made further inroads into Harvey’s lead, cutting it to only 0.33 by Ramsey and leading him by almost a second by the Bungalow and almost two seconds by Cronk-Ny-Mona.

Anderson and Moffitt and Harvey went straight through but Joe Phillips elected to refuel at the end of the first lap which left Harvey in the lead after his opening lap of 109.373mph (20:41.88) from Dave Moffitt 109.064 (20:45.40) with Phillips (108.820mph – 20:45.40) six seconds back on the leader in third place.

By Glen Helen, with his pit stop, Phillips dropped back to ninth leaving Shaun Anderson to move into the top three. Moffitt posted a second lap of 20.47.39 (108.889mph) to lead on the road and on time with a three second lead over Phil Harvey with Michael Sweeney moving in third.

Moffitt, Harvey, Anderson and Sweeney all pitted at the end of the second lap, and Phil Harvey moved into a six second lead at Glen Helen from Moffitt with Sweeney a further five seconds back in third, Moffitt picking up a time penalty for a speed infringment.

Despite that, Moffitt cut Harvey’s lead to less than a second by the Bungalow and had moved eleven seconds in front of the Dorset man by Cronk-Ny-Mona and extended his lead to twelve seconds by the end of lap three, posting 22:03.85 on the third lap with Joe Phillips holding third.

Moffitt extended his lead to sixteen seconds by Ramsey Hairpin with Joe Phillips moving into second place and although Harvey again got ahead of Phillips on time he was passed on the mountain section and eventually had to settle for third in a race time of 1:24.41.84 (106.912mph), behind race winner Moffitt 1:24.16.55 (107.447mph) and Phillips 1:24.39.86 (106.954mph) but with the consolation of a rare podium for a two stroke 250cc machine.

As this was the first time that the SuperTwins have had their own designated race, Dave Moffitt’s last lap of 20:39.91 (109.547mph), the fastest lap of the race, becomes the lap record.

In the concurrent Lightweight Race, Ross Johnson was first away. Alistair Haworth on his 400cc Yamaha had moved narrowly into the lead from Billy Smith by Glen Helen, but only by a margin of .06 seconds with Johnson in third a further two seconds back.

Smith moved into the lead at Ballaugh building up a four second lead over Haworth and he had extended this to eleven seconds by Ramsey. His first lap of 21:48.34 (103.817mph) gave him a seventeen second lead over Haworth (22:05.70 – 102.458mph) with Ross Johnson holding third 22:06.37. Smith maintained his form throughout the race and although Alistair Haworth continued to push Smith retained his top spot eventually winning in a race time of 1:27.13.58 (103.813mph) from Haworth (1:27.41.66-103.259mph) with Johnson third (1:28.07.94-102.745mph).

Race Times

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