Following difficult weather conditions last weekend for the start of the Isle of Man TT, spectators and competitors alike were relieved to wake up to brilliant blue skies on Tuesday morning – perfect conditions for what can only be described as a truly exhilarating race.
Monday night’s Supersport extravaganza was spectacularly claimed by Ian Hutchinson and it appears the 35 year-old is dominating the competition, as Tuesday’s Superstock event revealed.
The crowd were raring to go and the race took off to a flying start, with Michael Dunlop – the 2014 Superstock winner – leading the first two laps of the race. But it wasn’t a winning day for the former champion, with some speculating that it was his crash in Sunday’s RTS Superbike race which set him back. Nevertheless – second place is a respectable position.
It was this year’s favourite Ian Hutchinson who clinched a win at the Superstock race on Tuesday, firing up his PBM Kawasaki, and with both agility and speed hurtling across the finishing line to win by a margin of 17.1 seconds. Not only that – the race record has been beaten by this talented Yorkshireman by 32 seconds. What a win!
With Hutchinson at the helm, how did the race bode for the other competitors? Guy Martin had his sights set on gold, and managed to keep up in third place for much of the race. Following a 30-second penalty in Monday’s race and facing difficulties fuelling his BMW on Tuesday, perhaps it comes as no surprise that a win just wasn’t meant to be for this top class rider.
The final podium position was awarded to Northern Ireland’s Lee Johnston, who set a cracking pace and managed to swerve past James Hillier to secure third place, initially riding at a jaw-dropping 110 seconds behind Hillier. A fantastic result for Johnston – it’s his first podium finish at the Isle of Man TT.
Fingers crossed the sunny spell continues for tomorrow’s race, as Hutchinson and Dunlop go head to head to win the next Superstock event. Want to find more coverage on the Isle of Man TT? Check out insidebikes for further details about this epic race thus far.
