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Junior Manx GP report

Author: Department of Tourism and Leisure
Posted on: Thursday, Sep 01 2005



After a delay of 23 hours while bad weather receded, the four-lap Junior was led away by Tynan’s Kenneth McCrae (Yamaha) and Keighley’s Craig Atkinson (Honda).

Next were brothers Andy and Alan Jackson, the latter the fastest of all in practice and race favourite. But he was out of luck, with mechanical trouble only five miles out at Pear Tree Cottage. McCrae also expired early, parking up at the Mountain Box on the opening lap.

At the end of the first lap, Ian Pattinson (Honda) from Weardale led by 2.4 seconds at an average speed of 118.730mph from a standing start. Second was Seamus Greene (Honda) at 118.519mph and third John Burrows (Yamaha) from Dungannon at a further 3.41 seconds back at 118.168mph.

Fourth was Craig Atkinson (Honda), fifth Si Fulton (Honda) and sixth Stephen Oates (Kawasaki). Best of the 250cc machines was Gavin Bell (Honda) in 18th place at 111.394mph.

The pressure was certainly on between virtually identical machines as they revelled in the far better weather than prevailed at the time the race should have run originally. As they roared down the Mountain for the second time Greene had taken over by a second and as the refuelling halts were taken he pulled out a further four seconds with a second lap speed of 119.682mph and a race average of 119.097mph. Pattinson leapfrogged Burrows, with Fulton doing likewise to Atkinson. Oates slipped back to eighth astern of Maurice Hogg (Yamaha) and Barry Davidson (Yamaha).
Bell was up to 16th with a second lap at 114.068mph and a race average of 112.715mph.

Greene and Pattinson were at it hammer-and-tongs and Pattinson snatched the lead back at the Bungalow on lap three. It was 1.3 seconds at Cronk-ny-Mona and a mile on at the Grandstand just 0.98 seconds with one lap to go. Burrows was next, 44 seconds back reeling at the speed of the front two. The third lap speeds were slower as they included the pit stops, the leader’s race average falling to 117.583mph. Fourth was Fulton, fifth Atkinson and sixth Davidson. Bell stayed 16th at 111.318mph.

AT Glen Helen on the last lap, Pattinson was 3.32 seconds ahead of Greene, with Burrows 52 seconds down in third place. At Ballaugh the difference between Pattinson and Greene was 4.4 seconds as he strove to get away from his chaser on the road by more than the ten seconds that separated them on corrected time. At Ramsey Pattinson led by 5.03 seconds with only the final Mountain climb remaining. He won by 6.59 sec from Greene, with Burrows, Fulton, Atkinson and Davidson completing the top six. Bell was best 250 in 15th place.


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