The New Zealander took his first TT victory, ahead of Simon Smith who took the Manton RS250 Honda to runner-up place after standing in as replacement for an injured rider.

Smith was asked by the team owner to ride the 250cc machine after regular rider Shaun Brown crashed in practice last week and broke an ankle.

"I've hardly ridden two-stroke 250s so it was a gamble but after my first lap in practice I was more than happy to race the machine," said Smith.

Third place ­ in a race due to be axed from the 2003 race schedule - went to Honda-mounted Roy Richardson despite struggling with visor trouble as water leaked into his helmet in the closing stages of the race.

250cc TT result (four laps ­ 150.92 miles): 1 Bruce Anstey, New Zealand, (Yamaha) 1hr 18m 31.1s ­ 115.32mph, 2 Simon Smith, GB (Honda) 1hr 21m 34.7s ­ 111.00mph, 3 Roy Richardson, GB (Honda) 1hr 22m 18.5s ­ 110.01mph, 4 Richard Coates, GB (Honda) 1hr 23m 11.6s ­ 108.84mph, 5 Keith Shannon, GB (Honda) 1hr 24m 57.3s ­ 106.58mph, 6 Henrik Voit, Germany (Honda) 1hr 25m 13.1s ­ 106.25mph, 7 Paul Owen, GB (Honda) 1hr 25m 23.7s ­ 106.03mph, 8 Trevor Keys, GB (Honda) 1hr 27m 28.7s ­ 103.51mph, 9 Decca Kelly, GB (Yamaha) 1hr 28m 48.7s ­ 101.95mph. Only nine finished.