From a press release issued by Honda Racing:

Day three
Isle of Man TT Festival
June 4, 2003.

Anstey Take Junior TT Win – Lougher Second

Molyneux, Hallam the Sidecar Hounours

Kiwi Bruce Anstey powered Triumph to victory in the Junior TT as the British marque made its racing return to the Isle of Man with a factory backed team for the first time in almost three decades.

The 30 year old was a man in a hurry to secure his career second victory on the Island, heading the action throughout the four lap, 150.92 mile race, to finish 11 seconds clear of Honda mounted Ian Lougher chasing him hard every meter of the four laps. Adrian Archibald finished third for Suzuki five seconds down on Lougher.

Anstey sliced an amazing 39 seconds off the race
record time, and though he twice broke the lap record, in his relentless charge, that finally went to Ryan Farquhar whose final lap was completed at an average speed of 122.30mph.

Anstey hit the front immediately, and there was no way he was letting it slip with some brilliant riding on the long, torturous 37.73 mile Mountain Course as he packed the power to end the first lap with a seven second advantage over Ian Lougher, with Jason Griffiths and Adrian Archibald scrapping for third place.

The first lap was fast, Anstey running at an average of 121.10mph, but the second was even quicker as he clocked a flying lap of 18m 35.37s, pushing the record to 121.78mph, to extend his advantage over six times race winner Lougher to nine seconds.

Anstey was hot on the charge as he rejoined after his fuelling halt, pulling further ahead, though Honda CBR600RR rider Lougher was not giving anything away as he hung in determindly, with both of them again bettering the lap record on the final lap, but Farquhar, coming in fourth on his Kawasaki had the edge on them, just.

Shaun Harris, the winner of the 1000 Production race earlier in the week, took fifth, ahead of Yamaha’s Griffiths, but, Jim Moodie coming in ninth, just ahead of John McGuinness put the icing on the cake for Triumph as they secured the manufacturers award.

Triumph’s last previous victory on the Island had been in the ten lap 1975 Production race, won by Dave Croxford and Alex George. Anstey had secured his place in history: “It can’t be bad, can it, giving them victory after all of those years, I can hardly believe it. The bike never missed a beat, it was just perfect. I knew that I could do it practice had gone so well, and I was feeling so confident.”

Lougher had to settle for second best: “Bruce is a good rider, and I have a lot of respect for him on the day I lost the race to a better guy. The conditions were perfect, the best we have had.

“I was working the rear tyre a bit too much so we probably could have done with an odd suspension tweak here and there but at the end of the day I’ve done a 122mph lap so it can’t have been that far out. I found out at my pit stop that it was Bruce leading so I concentrated on catching him. He was faster than me on the run from Glen Helen to Ramsey but I seemed to have the legs on him over the mountain.” Lougher concluded.

Next Honda to finish was Gordon Blackley who took eighth place on his Branson CBR600RR Honda. Blackley was helped with a 120mph lap on his fourth and final circuit.

The fine conditions enjoyed by the Junior field had taken a turn for the worse, with rain falling on parts of the course as the second Sidecar TT of the Festival got underway after a 15 minute delay. It was declared a wet race, but Manxman Dave Molyneux and passenger Craig Hallam opted to go out on slick tyres. “It was hairy out there, we very sideways on,” said Molyneux as he savoured his eighth victory on the Island, with passenger Hallam adding “that was the most dangerous TT I have ever been in it should have cancelled after two laps.”

They took the victory by some 50 seconds ahead of another Manx crew, Nick Crowe and Darren Hope, who in only their second year of riding the TT took the overall sidecar title having finished second in Saturday’s race. The winner’s of the opener pulled out at Kirk Michael at half distance while running third.


Results from Isle of Man TT racing festival

JuniorTT
four laps, 150.92mph
1 Bruce Anstey Triumph 1:15:13.98
2 Ian Lougher Honda 1:15:24.94
3 Adrian Archibald Suzuki 1:15:30.00
4 Ryan Farquhard Kawasaki 1:15:31.15
5 Shaun Harris Suzuki 1:15:48.42
6 Jason Griffiths Yamaha 1:15:54.72
7 Richard Britton Kawasaki 1:16:09.02
8 Gordon Blackley Honda 1:16:28.64
9 Jim Moodie Triumph 1:16:35.90
10 John McGuinnness Triumph 1:16:38.46

Sidecar race “B” TT three laps, 113.19miles
1 David Molyneux/Craig Hallam Honda 1:04:25.17
2 Nick Crowe/Darren Hope Yamaha 1:05:15.67
3 Gregory Lambert/Daniel Sayle Yamaha 1:06:17.31
4 Ben Dixon/ Mark Lambert Yamaha 1:06:37.02
5 Geoff Bell/Jake Beckworth Yamaha 1:06:48.06
6 John Holden/Colin Hardman Yamaha 1:07:15.87
7 Andrew Laidlow/Patrick Farrance Yamaha 1:07:33.42
8 Roy Hanks/Dave Wells Yamaha 1:7:35.35
9 Allan Schofield/Mark Cox Yamaha 1:08:43.27
10 Andy Brown/John Dowling Yamaha 1:09:20.05