Padgett's Honda's Bruce Anstey won an amazing first Superbike race at the Ulster Grand Prix when he came through from the second wave to clinch victory by almost five seconds. Problems in qualifying saw the Kiwi way down on the grid but he utilised the clear road in front of him to shock the four riders who were fighting it out at the head of the field. The race had been delayed by almost an hour when rain fell but when it was restarted, over the shorter distance of five laps, conditions were dry all round.

“It was an awesome race for me and starting from the second wave played into my hands as it gave me plenty of clear road and it allowed me to do my own thing, which is what I do best. “ admitted Anstey. “The bike’s the smoothest thing I’ve ever ridden and we had a new engine which was really strong so it couldn’t have worked out any better. I got into a nice rhythm early on, put some fast laps in early on and pulled it off.”

The race was one lap old when it was stopped due to rain and even then, Anstey had a one second lead so that was a forewarning for the rest of the field but they were still unable to do anything about the Padgetts Honda rider in the re-start. He led by over a second at the end of the first lap although it was Keith Amor, Gary Johnson, Guy Martin and John McGuinness that were leading on the road, little to choose between the quartet. Further back, Ryan Farquhar had the edge over William Dunlop and Michael Dunlop, the latter out on his Superstock machine after problems in the first start with his Superbike.

On lap two, William Dunlop had latched onto the front four to make it a five-way dice on the road but Anstey was pulling clear and his lead was up to 3.5 seconds over Martin, Amor, Johnson and McGuinness. As the leading pack fought a ferocious battle, Anstey was able to take full advantage of the clear road and continued to edge away.

The front four on the road were still nose to tail but Dunlop had replaced McGuinness, the Honda rider going out at Deers Leap on the final lap, and Martin and Amor were continually swapping places as Johnson sat in their slipstream. That was how they crossed the line but it mattered little as Anstey, who had started some 30s behind them on the road, came home 4.8s clear for his 7th UGP win.

Martin got second from Amor, Johnson and Dunlop with Cameron Donald, Michael Dunlop, Ryan Farquhar, Stephen Thompson and Adrian Archibald completing the top ten.

1 Bruce Anstey (Honda)

2 Guy Martin (Suzuki) +4.828s

3 Keith Amor (Honda) +4.989s

4 Gary Johnson (Honda) +5.254s

5 William Dunlop (Honda) +5.599s

6 Cameron Donald (Honda) +6.859s

7 Michael Dunlop (Kawasaki) +9.295s

8 Ryan Farquhar (Kawasaki) +16.511s

9 Stephen Thompson (BMW) +24.228s

10 Adrian Archibald (BMW) + 24.454s

Fastest lap: Anstey (131.88mph)