Lougher Takes Isle Of Man Junior TT Win

Lougher Takes Isle Of Man Junior TT Win

© 2005, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

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HONDA RACING INFORMATION Junior TT victory for Lougher and Honda CBR600RR Ian Lougher powered his CBR600RR Honda to a comfortable victory in the Supersport 600 Junior TT race, taking his seventh success in 21 years of racing the Isle of Man Mountain Course by some 22 seconds ahead of John McGuinness. The 41 year old had complained of a stomach upset earlier in the day, but he shrugged that aside with a superb ride that featured a high-speed duel for supremacy with Ryan Farquhar, riding Kawasaki, in the first half of the race. Lougher was running a little over a second ahead after a first lap at 122.397mph, but as they pitted for fuel next time around the 37.73 miles of public road action, it was young Farquhar who held the advantage, just, by 0.6 seconds. But then it was all change. Farquhar was quickly away from the pits, but disappointment was only half a dozen miles away – just as in Sunday’s Superbike race, he was sidelined by machine problems. That left the way clear for Lougher to take Honda to their first victory in this event since 1999, and he did it in style: “That was fantastic – I knew that it was going to be tough early on so was concentrating hard all of the way, but then Ryan went out, leaving John in second place.” Said Lougher. “I got my head down because I wanted to beat him fair and square – he is the lap record holder, and it means a lot to get ahead of him and take this victory. The Honda is a magic little bike around here -it handles so well and has great corner speed, and that is just what I needed,” Lougher smiled, ” and, 21 years on from my first race here, I am still enjoying it just as much.” “This victory also makes up for my mishap in this race last year when I crashed a Union Mills – that went through my mind every time I went through that section, but this year it all came good with the victory.” McGuinness, aboard a Yamaha, had no complaints. “I rode the wheels of the bike and tried everything – I felt as fast as anyone out there and had no problems.” His team-mate Jason Griffiths took third place, ahead of Suzuki rider Bruce Anstey, while fifth place went to Guy Martin on a Honda. Anstey had earlier taken the victory in the three lap Superstock TT race, inheriting the lead at the Bungalow when his team-mate Adrian Archibald ran out of fuel on the third and final lap with little more than six miles of the race remaining. Archibald had set the pace throughout and had a 20 seconds advantage as he dashed onto the Mountain section for the final time, but by the time he reached the Bungalow his bike was spluttering to a halt. “He just went off line, slowed and stopped – it was a pity as he was riding so well and had me beat,” said Anstey who was taking his fourth victory on the Island, finishing some 36 seconds ahead of Lougher, aboard a Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade. “I made a slow start – I was really feeling ill, quite sick, and the signals telling me that I was running seventh made me feel worse, but then I got my head down, and started pulling time back,” Lougher explained. The extent of his hard riding finish was, over the last lap, to transform a nine seconds deficit on Farquhar into a one second advantage – enough to give him second place, at the expense of the Kawasaki rider. Jason Griffiths, Guy Martin and Paul Hunt completed the top six, ahead of the Honda trio of Martin Finnegan, Richard Britton and Ian Hutchinson with Chris Heath, riding Yamaha in tenth place.

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