Lougher and Fireblade end Festival Week with Second in Senior TT John McGuinness powered relentlessly to victory in the ‘Blue-Riband’ finale to the Isle of Man TT Festival, the Senior race, decided over six laps of the notorious 37.73-mile Mountain Course. McGuinness brought his Yamaha home ahead of the Honda CBR1000RR of Ian Lougher with Guy Martin (Suzuki) third. Lougher was satisfied with his second place; “I’m happy with that the Honda is a fast bike, and they’ve provided me with good bikes through the week. Everyone has worked so hard for me all through the festival – I’ve had some good guys behind me.” Earlier during the week, Lougher had taken victory in the Junior Supersport race “A” and finished second in the Superstock race. Englishman McGuinness, who had begun the week with a runaway success in the Superbike race, adopted the same tactics in the Senior TT, charging hard into the opening lap to effectively break the challenge of the opposition. McGuinness completed that first lap in 17:46.77, an average speed of 127.36 mph, a Senior race lap record and a performance that put him nine seconds clear of the Fireblade of Ian Lougher, who was chasing a second victory of the week. Adrian Archibald, bidding to end a lean time during the festival was upping the power aboard his Suzuki, and hounding Lougher, moving ahead of him on the second lap, while out front, McGuinness was dictating terms, but then, Ulsterman Archibald slowed, retiring at the Bungalow with a deflating tyre. Martin Finnegan, riding a Honda Fireblade, and Richard Britton charged ahead of Lougher, but as they pitted for the first time to take on fuel and change rear tyres, McGuinness, with a lap of 127.196 mph was running 25 seconds clear – Finnegan lost time in the pits, dropping back to fifth place. McGuinness maintained the pace at the front, with Britton, riding Honda second from Lougher as they charged towards half distance by which time the challenge of Guy Martin, riding the Island for only the second time was emerging as he pushed his Suzuki into fourth place. By the second round of pit stops McGuinness was running 28 seconds ahead of Britton, but dramatically the Honda man hit problems as he tried to exit the pits – the chain flicked off, and he lost time while his mechanics sorted the problem. Lougher was now second, but such was the pace of McGuinness that the two were running almost together on the road, while behind them Martin was holding on to third place but under severe fire form Finnegan, while Britton was back in fifth place. McGuinness took the victory, his eighth on the Island, by 34.68 seconds from Lougher, while Martin made his first ever podium, third by just a second from Finnegan. Britton was fifth with Jun Maeda, a Honda Development rider back in a sixth place aboard his Fireblade. “Fantastic – I so wanted to win the Senior race for the first time,” smiled McGuinness, who as the winner of the two big-bike races, collected the Joey Dunlop Trophy and a bonus of £10,000. “Brilliant, I thoroughly enjoyed that race, the bike never missed a beat. I just kept my head down all of the way and have to thank everyone who has stood by me and made this possible.” Pl / Name / Machine / Time / MPH 1 / John McGuinness / 1000 Yamaha R1 / 1h 49′ 15.16″ / 124.32 2 / Ian Lougher / 1000 Honda CBR RR / 1h 49′ 49.84″ / 123.67 3 / GUY MARTIN / 1000 Suzuki / 1h 50′ 08.19″ / 123.33 4 / Martin Finnegan / 1000 Honda CBR / 1h 50′ 09.50″ / 123.30 5 / Richard Britton / 998 Honda / 1h 50′ 21.24″ / 123.08 6 / Jun Maeda / 1000 Honda CBRR / 1h 51′ 07.10″ / 122.24 7 / Jason Griffiths / 1000 Yamaha / 1h 51′ 23.12″ / 121.94 8 / Ian Hutchinson / 1000 Honda / 1h 52′ 55.19″ / 120.29 9 / Nigel BEATTIE / 1000 Yamaha / 1h 53′ 20.24″ / 119.84 10 / CHRIS PALMER / 1000 Yamaha R1 / 1h 53′ 49.29″ / 119.33 11 / ROB FROST / 1000 Suzuki GSXR / 1h 54′ 03.50″ / 119.09 12 / Dean Silvester / 750 Suzuki / 1h 54′ 29.67″ / 118.63 13 / THOMAS MONTANO / 1000 MV Agusta / 1h 54′ 41.40″ / 118.43 14 / Les Shand / 1000 Yamaha / 1h 54′ 56.83″ / 118.17 15 / John Barton / 1000 Suzuki GSXR / 1h 54′ 58.24″ / 118.14 More, from a press release issued by Munroe Motors: As reported moments ago by telephone from Bushy’s beer tent at the race pits in Douglas, Isle of Man, American racer Thomas Montano riding a Munroe Motors MV F4-1000 scored a top finish in the Senior TT. In the most prestigious race of the annual 2 week road race event, Tom maintained an average of 118.4mph for the grueling 6 lap, 227 mile race held on public roads, which included two pit stops for gas. This gave him 13th place, but importantly he finished within 105% of race winner John McGuinness’s time, thereby winning a rare Silver Replica. To put this speed into perspective, Rossi’s winning speed at the Mugello MotoGP race last Sunday was at an average of 109mph. On a groomed race track with plenty of run-off. Tom’s MV F4-1000 is a stock unit off the Munroe Motors’ showroom floor – with a pipe, a chip and an Ohlins shock. “The bike is so easy to ride” Tom said between sips of beer. “If I hadn’t had a little clutch slip, I’d have gone even faster. The bike was awesome!”. Team boss Matt Prentiss added “Agostini is here with his TT-winning MV 750 from the 70’s – we’re gonna try and get a picture of Tom and our MV, with him and his MV!”. For the results sheet please visit: ~http://www.iomtt.com/results/2005/Fri10/senior-result.pdf~