Scotland's Keith Amor battled hard in his final race at the 2011 Isle of Man TT Races and the Scottish rider was rewarded with fifth place in the Blue Riband Senior TT, just one second shy of fourth place after battling arm-pump in the early laps.
Riding the Honda TT Legends Superbike for the second time during the week, Amor also posted his first ever 130mph+ lap of the Mountain Course and ensured he finished all five solo races inside the top five.
With the race delayed by five hours due to wet weather on a six-mile stretch of the course, the race eventually got underway at 5.15pm and a solid first lap of 128.485mph saw Amor slot into sixth place and, improving his speed to 128.935mph second time around, he was able to overhaul Gary Johnson and move up to fifth.
With a good pit stop and another 128mph+ lap on the fourth lap, Amor moved up to fourth at two thirds race distance but it was tight with Cameron Donald just over a second behind in fifth. The duo exhanged positions all the way round the final lap and although Keith set a new personal best lap of 130.177mph on his final circuit, the Australian rider just edged him out by 1.06s - after 226 miles and almost two hours of racing! The result did mean though that Amor finished 2nd overall in the TT Championship on 70 points, with team-mate John McGuinness taking the overall prize.
"That was a tough day at the office and there certainly wasn't much left in the tank at the end, I gave it everything! I struggled a bit in the early couple of laps as I was too tense and I got bad arm pump but after the first pit stop I settled down and got into the race a bit more," said Amor.
"I rode a lot better on laps three and four, and after the last pit stop there was nothing between Cameron and myself, 4th was definitely up for grabs. My boards kept saying +1 and then -1 so I got my head down and gave it my all but I caught some backmarkers at the top of Barregarrow and Ramsey Hairpin and I just lost a little bit of time. I tried all the way to the end and am completely done in now so to lose fourth by a second is quite gutting. But after all that's happened this fortnight, I can't complain."
"I obviously came into the meeting with high hopes and my best ever chance of a TT win but the two spills hampered me although it's the first time I've finished all five TT races in a week - and all of them inside the top five - so I've got to be happy. After crashing twice I didn't think I'd end up with the results I got so full credit it to Honda and all the boys in the team.
"A huge thanks to Dunlop as the tyres were absolutely mega - the grip today was absolutely phenomenal, I could do exactly what I wanted to do and they were still in mint condition at the end! I just wasn't quite strong enough today but, overall, it's been a good week and to finish 2nd in the TT Championship is a great achievement."
