Lee Johnston pulled back a four-second deficit to long time race leader Ivan Lintin in Thursday’s NW200 Supertwin race to take his first ever win at the event. The former National Superstock 600cc Champion turned the despair of his first corner Supersport crash into delight and grabbed the lead for the very first time at the Juniper chicane on the final lap, just a few hundred yards from the line.
“I was on edge for the first couple of laps after the wee slip off and it took me a while to get settled,” said Johnston afterwards. “I’ve no idea how he managed it but Ivan just disappeared into the distance but when Keith Amor came by me, we were able to reel him in bit by bit. You need to be really smooth on these bikes but I was pushing like mad on the last lap and I’m over the moon to win here.”
Lintin grabbed the lead at York Corner on the opening lap and with Connor Behan crashing out mid-pack, he made the break straightaway. By the end of the lap, his lead was almost three seconds but behind no less than nine riders were battling for second and to call it frenetic would be an understatement.
It was Jamie Hamilton that initially held onto second from Johnston and Jeremy McWillians but he went straight on at the Magherabuoy chicane second time around whilst Michael Dunlop did the same at Juniper. That all meant Lintin’s lead was up to four seconds at half race distance with Johnston now in second ahead of Amor, James Cowton, James Hillier and Ryan Farquhar.
Amor waved Johnston to sit behind him and although Lintin’s lead looked like it would be unchallenged, the Scot had other ideas and with the fastest lap of the race, a new lap record of 108.664, both he and Johnston were on Lintin’s back wheel going into the final lap.
However, all the hard work Amor had done came to nothing when he slowed coming out of Mill Road roundabout but Johnston kept pushing and he braked the latest into Junipr on the final lap to take the win by half a second.
Further back, Cowton held off Hillier for his debut NW200 podium whilst Hamitlon fought back from his overshoot to pip former team boss Farquhar with Martin Jessopp a further second behind in seventh. Former GP winner McWilliams dropped back in the closing stages to finish eighth with Paul Shoesmith and Timothee Monot coming through from the second group to finish ninth and tenth respectively.
