Shaun Anderson and Jon Kennaugh led the newcomers A race away but it was Tim Venables who quickly established a lead by Glen Helen, followed by Andy Fenton and Shaun Anderson.

Venables, a student at Loughborough University, continued to set the pace on the opening lap and clocked a new Newcomers MGP lap record of 117.897 to lead by 11 seconds from Shaun Anderson with Andy Fenton in third and Norwegian rider Sebastian Buch holding fourth place.

Fenton was involved in an accident on the second lap at the Creg Ny Baa and was taken by Air Med to Nobles Hospital with leg injuries but at the front of the field Venables extended his lead to 10 seconds by the end of lap two with a lap of 115.607 from Shaun Anderson with Sebastian Buch up to third.

That remained the order on lap three with Venables extending his lead to over 20 seconds from Shaun Anderson with Buch a further 30+ seconds back. Buch in third had the consolation of becoming the fastest Norwegian around the mountain course, beating Per Ivar Breland’s lap record of 110.110.

In the Newcomers B race, Jonny Heginbotham set a new lap record of 109.073 on the opening lap to lead by 36 seconds from fellow Manx man Lee Darbyshire (105.980) with Scott Campbell (105.368) in third.

Heginbotham maintained his lead throughout the race and eventually finished first in a new race record of 1 hour 24:15.40 to win from Darbyshire with Tom Llewelyn in third.

Johnny Heginbotham from Port St Mary on the Isle of Man said:

“I didn’t want to be the fastest going into the race so parked the bike up really during qualifying and kept under the radar.”