William Dunlop took his seventh Ulster GP victory when he came out on top of a race-long battle with Bruce Anstey in the second Supersport race at Dundrod, a sensational final lap seeing the Milwaukee Yamaha rider sweep round the outside of his Padgetts Honda rival at the final corner to win by 0.058s.
"That was an unbelievable race and I can't believe I won!" a delighted Dunlop said afterwards. "Bruce was stronger than me from Tournagrough to the start line and we were both riding so hard from start to finish. The bike was awesome but when I ran wide at the hairpin I thought I'd lost the race. Bruce squeezed by me but lost his speed on the exit and I had enough to get by him. I really enjoyed it."
With conditions near perfect, it was Dunlop who took the lead on the opening lap as brother Michael made a terrible start and at the end of the first lap William held a 0.8s lead over Anstey with Conor Cummins in third ahead of Cameron Donald, Michael Dunlop and Dean Harrison.
The leading three soon pulled away but Anstey had the magnets on reducing the gap to 0.3s on the second lap with Cummins still hanging on in third. They had a nine second gap over Michael Dunlop who was now up to fourth ahead of Harrison and Donald.
Lap three and Anstey hit the front for the first time immediately opening up a half second lead with Cummins a further three seconds back in third. Michael Dunlop, Harrison and Donald were secure in fourth, fifth and sixth whilst a tremendous three-way battle was taking place for seventh between Dan Cooper, Ian Lougher and Ivan Lintin.
Anstey held onto the lead on lap four, both him and William running wide at the hairpin simultaneously, and going into the sixth and final lap the Kiwi held a 0.677s lead, Cummins now having dropped six seconds in arrears.
Dunlop began to close in on the final lap and hit the front again on the run through Jordan's Cross and when Anstey ran wide at Tournagrough, it appeared to have given him the breathing space he needed. However, he again ran wide at the hairpin which allowed Anstey to close in and he pulled off an audacious move on the run towards the Quarries to re-take the lead. Dunlop wasn't to be outdone and with Anstey losing the drive exiting Quarries, the Ballymoney man got the run he needed and went round the outside to take a superb win, also claiming the fastest lap at 127.94mph.
Cummins took a strong third ahead of a low-key Michael Dunlop with Harrison and Donald coming home in fifth and sixth. Lintin got the verdict for seventh with Lougher and Cooper whilst a good three-way battle for tenth went the way of Ben Wylie, ahead of Dan Stewart and Jamie Coward.
