By Phil Wain
June 8 2006

The 2006 Isle of Man Tourist Trophy road races: John McGuinness rewrote the record books once again as he flew to victory in today’s Junior Supersport 600cc race. The HM Plant Honda rider pushed the lap record up to an astonishing 123.975mph on his second lap, as he fought tooth and nail with good friend Ian Hutchinson, and it was a case of master versus the pupil for the entire race distance. McGuinness eventually took the chequered flag by 8.9 seconds from Hutchinson, with Bruce Anstey further back in third - but there was drama at the end of the race when Hutchinson was disqualified due to illegal camshaft dimensions. This meant that John’s winning margin over Anstey was 26.4 seconds, whilst the disqualification promoted Jason Griffiths up to third.

The race was delayed by two hours because sea mist restricted visibility across the course, but as the sun burst through the clouds were burnt away and we got underway at 12:45pm. Setting off at number 3, John led on time at Glen Helen on the opening lap, but only by the minuscule margin of 0.8 seconds. As expected, Hutchy was pushing John hard, but the Morecambe rider responded and, as they flashed along the start and finish line in excess of 150mph, the lead was up to four seconds. A new lap record of 123.263mph had done the trick, but it was still too close for comfort and John continued on at a frenetic pace. The gap was the same at Glen Helen, but by Ramsey John was beginning to edge away, his lead now up to seven seconds, and by the Grandstand it was up to nine, courtesy of that stunning 123.975mph lap.

John’s pit stop went to perfection, but Hutchinson was forced to stop as he left the pits to re-attach his visor, and the delay cost him at least five seconds, enabling John to up his lead to over twelve seconds. However, the Yorkshireman was riding a superb race, and he began to eat into John’s lead. At the end of lap three it was down to 8.5 seconds, and at Glen Helen on the final lap it had shrunk again to just 6.7 seconds - but John piled on the speed over the Mountain and his eventual winning margin was 8.7 seconds. As mentioned, Hutchinson was then disqualified after the post-race inspections, and Anstey was promoted to second.

After another brilliant day of weather and racing on the Isle of Man, a jubilant John said:
“That’s ten TT wins now - I’m getting up there with the greats! It feels absolutely fantastic to win today, and it was such a hard race and I had to concentrate all the way. I saw +12 and then +7 on my boards, so I had to keep pushing all the way to the chequered flag - Hutchy was riding brilliantly today and that’s why the records went. We took a bit of a gamble on some of the engine and gearing settings, and were working on the bike right up until the last minute, but it paid off and it’s a credit to everyone in the team for all their hard work.

“It was hot work out there, and I had a couple of slides, but conditions were awesome and to set a new lap record of almost 124mph is mega, almost unbelievable. My signals were brilliant and I wanted to ease off, but I couldn’t as Hutchy was far too close to do that. The bike was perfect, the new Dunlop tyres were brilliant, and the whole team did a great job. I’m absolutely over the moon with this win.”

John’s final race is in the six-lap Senior race on Friday, the Blue Riband event of the week, and he’ll be gunning for his 11th victory - to move alongside Steve Hislop, Phillip McCallen and Dave Molyneux on the list of all-time winners.