SuperTwin and Lightweight

Nigel Moore won his first race at the Manx Grand Prix, taking the honours in today’s SuperTwin Race while Ross Johnson held of a late challenge from Tim Sayers to take the Lightweight title.

There was drama at the start of the SuperTwin race when one of the pre-race favourites Phil McGurk, who was due to start in third place, broke a gear lever in Parc Ferme ahead of the race and had to start from the back of the grid.

McGurk was actually the leader at the first timing point, Glen Helen, but by the end of the first lap Nigel Moore with 20:29.11 (110.509mph) had a seventeen second lead over Trevor Ferguson (20:46.41 – 108.975mph) with Michael Sweeney a further seven seconds back in third.

McGurk came into the pits in fifth place for repairs to the gear lever at the end of lap 1 but quit in the pits leaving Moore to build on his lead on lap 2 with Brian Mateer moving up into third by Ballaugh.

That remained the top three approaching the end of the second lap, with all three leading riders due into the pits at the end of the second lap. A good pit stop by Moore’s team saw him consolidate his lead at Glen Helen.

An incident at the Nook on the second lap saw Sweeney move into second and Brian Mateer take third at the end of the second lap although Rab Davie moved ahead of Mateer by Glen Helen on the third lap.

At the end of the third lap, Moore still led by a commanding 1 minute 25 seconds from Sweeney but Mateer moved back into the final podium position easing ahead of Davie with Andrew Dudgeon, winner of the Newcomer B SuperTwins race last Saturday, holding a credible fifth place.

The top three retained their positions at the end of the fourth lap with Nigel Moore taking the MGP SuperTwin title with 1:22.09.61 – (110.214mph) from Michael Sweeney (1:24.00.73 – 107.784mph) with Brian Mateer finishing third 1:24.28.55 – (107.193mph).


In the concurrent Lightweight race, Alistair Haworth established a lead of almost thirteen seconds from Ross Johnson after an opening lap of 21:29.84 (105.306) with Colin Martin on a 400cc Honda in third, Adam Jones holding fourth and Gavin Lupton completing the top five.

However, race leader Alistair Haworth retired at the Bungalow on lap 2 leaving Ross Johnson to move into the lead and by the end of lap 2, when he pitted, he had built up a lead of half a minute from Tim Sayers, and was a minute and a half ahead of Dave Corlett in third with Adam Jones fourth and Stephen Harper fifth. Dave Lupton, who elected to go straight through, moved into third place by Glen Helen.

Lupton pitted at the end of the third lap, which dropped him out of the top three, but at the front of the race, Tim Sayers cut Johnson’s lead to two seconds at Ramsey on the last lap. Johnson duly finished in an overall race time of 1:27.44.87 but had a tense wait of almost five minutes before Sayers finished in 1:27.47.09 for his victory to be confirmed on corrected time. Adam Jones with 1:29.43.59 – (100.920) took the final podium place.

Race Results

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