REDMAYNE CLINCHES THRILLING IMGold NEWCOMERS A MGP RACE

Osborne and Caswell-Cox win B and C Races

The Isle of Man's Billy Redmayne followed illustrious names including Ian Hutchinson, Robert Dunlop, Michael Dunlop, Carl Fogarty, Phillip McCallen and Ryan Farquhar by winning the Manx Grand Prix Newcomers title.

The Manxman clinched a thrilling IMGold Newcomers Race victory by 1.8 seconds after a last lap duel with Malachi Mitchell-Thomas with Ireland's Shane Egan taking the final podium place. It was a double celebration for the Isle of Man with Douglas based Dean Osborne taking the B title while Felpham's James Caswell-Cox clinched the Newcomers C Race.

Competitors were greeted with the best conditions of the week for the rescheduled race as the Mountain Course was bathed in sunshine, although Clerk of the Course Phil Taubman warned the assembled grid about sunlight glare from Union Mills to Ballacraine and on the Mountain section from the Gooseneck.

Competition was expected to be fierce between the three fastest qualifiers - Manx rider Billy Redmayne, who is home from a tour of Afghanistan, Horwich's Malachi MItchell-Thomas, who won the Newcomers B race at the Southern 100 and Ireland's Shane Egan, the 2012 Superbike Cup Champion and so it proved.

The Newcomers Race is broken into three different classifications with Newcomers A for machines up to 750cc, 650's twins and 250 two strokes eligible for the Newcomers B Race and Newcomers C for 400's and 125cc bikes.

The Race, the first of the Manx Grand Prix meeting, got away exactly on time at 6.30pm and Wales's Matthew Rees, the fourth fastest qualifier, riding the GT Superbikes Kawasaki had the honour of being first away from the start line.

And Rees turned the pre-race form book on its head by establishing a 3 second lead at Glen Helen from Redmayne with Mitchell-Thomas a further 1.5 seconds back in third. Egan was six seconds behind Rees in fourth.

Redmayne began to close on Rees and moved narrowly ahead at the Bungalow, but by only half a second although at the end of the first lap Redmayne (115.950mph) had extended his lead over Rees (115.690) to 2.6 seconds with Egan (115.593) and Mitchell-Thomas (115.395) completing the top four.

With the race reduced to three laps in a truncated programme following yesterday's postponement, refuelling tactics were clearly going to play a part and while Rees and Redmayne came into the pits, Shane Egan elected to go straight through on his second lap.

Redmayne seemed to lose time in the pits after a problem with his fuel cap and dropped to fifth behind new race leader Shane Egan with Sam West, who also went straight through on the opening lap, in second from Mitchell-Thomas and Rees.

With both Egan and West refuelling at the end of the second lap, Malachi Mitchell Thomas moved into the lead but Redmayne was clearly on a charge and had closed the gap to four seconds at the Grandstand.

Although Mitchell-Thomas extended his lead to almost six seconds by Ramsey, a stunning Mountain Course section saw Redmayne move back into the lead at the Bungalow and the Manxman clinched the race win by 1.8 seconds with a final lap of 117.102, which gave him an overall race time of 114.955 (19:19.914).

West was only 2 seconds behind Egan at the Bungalow in the race for the final podium position but retired at the Creg Ny Baa leaving Egan (59:28.595/ 114.186 mph) to secure the final podium spot.

Dean Osborne, the fastest Newcomer in the B class qualifying, established a decisive lead after his opening lap 107.239 (21:06.593) with Barry Furber (105.440) twenty seconds back in second and Nick Anderson (104.923) holding third.

Despite pitting at the end of the first lap, Osborne was only eight seconds down on Furber at the end of the second lap with Furber opting for a three-lap strategy. Osborne was not to be denied and made up the gap, coming home with a final lap of 108.615 and an overall race time of 1:03.31.073 (106.921mph) to win by sixteen seconds from Furber (1:03.47.373/ 106.466) with Anderson (1:04.38.139/105.072) taking the final podium position.

French rider Lancelot Unissart led the Newcomers C race by 15 seconds from James Caswell-Cox, who set the fastest qualifying time in the class, after an opening lap 99.443 with Great Harwood's Gavin Browne third. Both Unissart (101.378) and Caswell-Cox (100.940) posted 100mph laps on the second lap but with Unissart pitting, Caswell-Cox's three-lap strategy saw him win by almost thirty seconds in 1:07.48.432/100.158mph) from Unissart (1:08.16.647/99.468). Brown's (1:10.31.688/ 96.293) secured him third place.


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