Padgett's Honda's Bruce Anstey has made up for his Superbike TT disappointment on Saturday to take victory in the first Supersport race on the Isle of Man this afternoon in an event that was marred by the death of Derek Brien at Gorse Lea.
The Kiwi ends three years of hurt on the Island to take his first victory since 2008 but said he 'felt he was riding like a wuss'. Injured Keith Amor took second place while Guy Martin bagged third even though he crashed at Creg-ny-Baa before the red-flag.
At the re-start, Wilson Craig Honda's Cameron Donald led the way with Michael Dunlop a tenth of a second behind at Glen Helen and Anstey a second further back, Gary Johnson in fourth and John McGuinness fifth.
The Ballymoney man had taken charge at Ballaugh, however, and was a second in front of Donald while Johnson had moved into third ahead of Anstey with Keith Amor in fifth but nearly eight seconds in arrears. The lead was up to 1.52s at Ramsey and then at the grandstand, both Dunlop and Johnson went straight through while the rest of the leaders came in.
Technical gremlins put paid to Dunlop's charge at Ballig on the next lap as they had at the Gooseneck in the first part, so Johnson headed the field at Glen Helen with Ian Lougher, Donald, Conor Cummins and Anstey making the top five.
By the time they reached Ramsey, Johnson had a 38-second lead over Donald while Anstey and Martin were five seconds behind as the timesheets began to normalise following pitstops. Martin was fourth and Amor now fifth but 45 seconds in arrears.
Donald pulled a couple of seconds back over over the Mountain but then Johnson had to make his stop and came out of pitlane on level terms but lost a huge amount of time on the run to Glen Helen, dropping to fifth as Donald now led Anstey by 4.16s.
It was not to be for the likeable Aussie though, as he retired at Kirkmichael, promoting Anstey to a lead he didn't relinquish while Martin and Amor scrapped it out for the podium spots and Johnson tried to make back time.
Amor's lead over Martin as they crossed the line was 8.38s while Johnson missed the podium by only a second. McGuinness was a second further back in fifth. Manxman Dan Kneen took sixth and Lougher seventh while Ben Wylie finished in eighth, Ian Mackman ninth and Dan Stewart rounded out the top ten.
