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TT 2006 - Senior Race Report

Author: Dept Of Tourism & Leisure
Posted on: Friday, Jun 09 2006



Senior TT Friday 9th June

Spectators in the sun-kissed Isle of Man saw the fastest race in TT history today when John McGuinness completed his third win of the week, in the 2e2 Group Senior Race, and set up a new outright lap record – at over 129 miles an hour! It was his 11th TT victory and moved him up to level third on the list of all-time greats.

Conditions were perfect for the final race of the 2006 TT, with the thermometer heading well into the 70s, and McGuinness took full advantage to lead from start to finish. His absolute record lap, on his Honda, was timed at 129.451. Australian Cameron Donald took his first podium position in second place and afterwards confessed himself to be ‘stunned’ at his achievement. He finished 21 seconds behind McGuinness, with Bruce Anstey third. Bruce will have cause to remember his final lap as he tried to catch Donald. He didn’t succeed but in the process also broke the 129 barrier at 129.045. Ian Lougher was fourth, Guy Martin fifth and Carl Rennie sixth.

With only five seconds separating the first six riders at Glen Helen – about nine miles from the start – on the first lap, another close race was in prospect. The early order was McGuinness, Hutchinson, Donald, Lougher, Martin and Anstey. However, Ian Hutchinson’s race was almost over as he was to retire at Ramsey. Jason Griffiths was another early retirement in the same area having been black-flagged with his machine smoking badly as a result of a possible head gasket failure.

As McGuinness swept past the Grandstand at the end of the first lap it was announced he had become the first man to break the 128 miles an hour barrier as well as establishing another outright lap record – and all from a standing start. His time of 17 minutes 39.95 seconds gave him a speed of 128.146. But even this only left him three seconds ahead of Guy Martin (127.678) who had ridden into second position, marginally ahead of Cameron Donald. Next in line were Ian Lougher, Bruce Anstey and Martin Finnegan.

The cheers rang out from the Grandstand at the end of lap two when it was announced that McGuinness had gone even faster – this time at 129.451 miles an hour. Cameron Donald lapped at 128.445 which brought him up into second position, ahead of Martin, but he was still 12 seconds behind McGuinness.

Unfortunately, Donald’s machine took a little time to fire-up after his refuelling stop at the end of lap two and lost further time to McGuinness. This contributed to the latter’s lead of 20 seconds by Glen Helen. Martin was still third, but the early part of lap three saw him being overtaken by Lougher and also Anstey.

Donald had managed to claw back a bit of the lead by the halfway point in the race but was still 18 seconds in arrears. Then came Lougher, Anstey, Martin and Finnegan. The order on the leaderboard was changing constantly. Finnegan retired at Ballacraine and Anstey moved up to third so the position at the end of lap four was McGuinnness, Donald, Anstey, Lougher, Martin and Carl Rennie but at the front McGuinness had extended his lead over Donald to 25 seconds.

McGuinness started his final lap with an advantage of 26 seconds over Donald who was holding on to a comfortable second position. There was a duel for the third podium position with Anstey just two seconds ahead of Lougher starting the final circuit but he finished with ten seconds in hand.

Best newcomer was Manxman Conor Cummins who finished 17th on his Yamaha, winning a bronze replica and achieving his ambition for the week of recording a lap at over 120 miles an hour.

Result:

1. John McGuinness, Honda, 1 47 38.54 (126.178);
2. Cameron Donald, Honda, 1 47 59.45 (125.777);
3. Bruce Anstey, Suzuki, 1 48 08.79.

Rob Frost, who crashed in the solo practice which followed Monday’s racing, has now been discharged from hospital while Simon Briggs, injured in the Sidecar Race ‘A,’ was due to be discharged today. Other patients in Noble’s Hospital include solo riders Robbie Silvester and Keith Stewart and sidecar passenger Darren Marshall, all of whom are described as ‘comfortable.’

There has been no change in the condition of James Cornell and Seamus Greene who are both said to be critical.


Read the Report, Statistics and all Results on - http://www.ttwebsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4558


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