Isle of Man TT draws to a close
The 2012 Isle of Man TT came to a close today with the already postponed Senior race being cancelled for the first time in the event’s 105-year history. A course inspection by race control and rider representatives, including Honda TT Legend John McGuinness, deemed the race unsafe to go ahead due to poor weather conditions.
The decision meant that McGuinness was unable to challenge for his 20th Isle of Man TT victory, but the ‘Morecambe Missile’ goes home happy having won both the Superbike and Superstock races to increase his tally of wins to 19. Race fans that lined the Isle of Man streets were treated to a parade lap by McGuinness and MotoGP star Cal Crutchlow.
John McGuinness
I think it was the right decision to cancel the race today. I’d love to be here tomorrow waiting for the sun to shine so we can race, but that’s not an option and for me, the track just wasn’t quite right. Racing my favourite bike here, starting at the front and possibly winning races is the best thing in the world, but I’m also really nervous about riding the big bikes in patchy and damp conditions. It’s disappointing for everybody but tomorrow’s another day and we’re already looking forward to next year.
The 2012 TT has been a successful one for Honda, with the manufacturer’s machines gracing the podium 11 out of a possible 18 times. Both the Superbike battle and the first Supersport race ended with a Honda 1-2-3, and McGuinness’s win in the Superstock class with Padgetts Racing took the tally of Honda TT wins to 163.
— Lightweight TT
Ryan Farquhar took his third TT win on Saturday evening when he took the re-introduced Lightweight TT on the KMR Kawasaki. Farquhar overcame an early challenge from James Hillier and, once the pit stop strategies had balanced themselves out, was over 20 seconds clear of his fellow Kawasaki rival and eventually took the win by 28.99s. To round out a really good day for Farquhar, Michael Rutter completed the podium on a second KMR Kawasaki.
After weather problems caused numerous delays to the day’s schedule, which resulted in the first ever cancellation of the Senior race, the Lightweight race, for Supertwin-spec machines, got underway at 6.30pm over the full 3-lap distance. With riders warned of the damp, particularly over the Mountain section, it was Hillier who led the field away but at Glen Helen it was Farquhar who led the Bournemouth Kawasaki rider by 2 seconds. Rutter was a further second back in third whilst Russ Mountford was putting in a sterling ride in fourth. William Dunlop and Cameron Donald completed the top six.
As the lap progressed, Farquhar was reducing the ten-second starting gap deficit to Hillier and by Ramsey Hairpin, he’d caught him on the road with Rutter now in second. The gap was ten seconds but Hillier was only 0.2s adrift of Rutter in third whilst Mountford was still riding excellently in fourth.
With an opening lap of 115.088mph, Farquhar led Hillier by 14.1s as Rutter dropped back to third with Mountford, Dunlop and Ian Lougher completing the top six. However, pitstop strategies now came into play and Hillier, Lougher, Mountford and Ivan Lintin all carried on whilst the other leaderboard men refuelled.
That meant the top six was somewhat shuffled around at Glen Helen on lap two and Hillier now led, his margin over Mountford 19 seconds. Farquhar was still in third with Lintin up to fourth and Lougher fifth. Rutter was in sixth and lost time at the pits when he struggled to get the machine fired up.
Hillier led for the entire lap but Farquhar was eating into his advantage all the time and it was clear he’d retake the lead on corrected time when Hillier stopped. The gap at the end of the second lap was just 6.76s and as Hillier had his tank topped up, the Ulsterman sped by. Mountford and Lintin were still in third and fourth with Rutter overhauling Lougher for fifth.
As the riders swept through Glen Helen for the third and final lap, the race settled down and Farquhar’s lead was a more than healthy 28 seconds. Hillier was 11 seconds up on Rutter with Mountford still in fourth although he was only 0.8s up on Donald who in turn was only four seconds ahead of William Dunlop, Lintin having slipped back to seventh.
Farquhar duly completed the lap for his third podium of the week and his first win on the Mountain Course since 2005 and his eventually winning margin over Hillier was 28.99s, the latter taking his debut podium to complete an excellent week of results. Rutter took third and claimed the fastest lap of the race at 115.554mph.
He’d caught Donald on the road and the Australian was able to take fourth and get the better of Mountford, the Wigan rider still taking his best ever TT result though. William Dunlop took sixth with Lintin, Lougher, Olie Linsdell and Jamie Hamilton rounding out the top ten. Hamilton was also mounted on a KMR Kawasaki with his result giving him the Newcomers Trophy for 2012.
