Thirty-one years after making his debut at the Manx Grand Prix, Ian Lougher took a dramatic win on his Paton in Saturday’s 500cc Classic TT, the Welshman fighting through the field from eighth place after receiving a 30s pit lane penalty to come home ahead of Dan Cooper and Bruce Anstey.
It was John McGuinness who led at Glen Helen on the first of the four laps, his lead over Lougher 8.1s with the third Paton of Ryan Farquhar a further 0.8s behind. McGuinness’ lead had increased to 11 seconds at Ballaugh but through the Sulby speed trap, his speed of 128mph was some 17mph down on Lougher and, sure enough, the Morecambe man was in trouble and retired at Ginger Hall. Two more fancied runners, William Dunlop (Ballacraine) and Roy Richardson (Appledene), were also early retirements.
As the lap wore on, Farquhar overhauled Lougher and both riders called in to refuel at the end of the lap, Farquhar’s lap of 109.826mph giving him a 6.4s advantage over the Welshman. However, he completely forgot about the pit-lane speed limit as he set off and subsequently received a 30s penalty. Cooper was holidng onto an excellent third, 2.7s ahead of Michael Rutter, with Michael Dunlop and Anstey rounding out the top six.
The pit-stops meant the leaderboard had a different look about it at Glen Helen on the second lap and Cooper led Rutter by just 0.38s with Farquhar a further 13s behind. Dunlop, Anstey and Connor Behan occupied the remaining top six positions with Lougher’s error dropping him all the way back to eighth. Meanwhile, Lee Johnston was another retirement, the Northern Irishman stopping at Braddan Bridge.
Rutter edged ahead of Cooper at Ballaugh, extending his lead to 3.8s by the time they reached Ramsey Hairpin for the second time and with a second lap speed of 109.102mph – the fastest ever by a single cylinder machine – his lead at half race distance over Farquhar was 7.8s. Cooper lapped at 108.042mph to place third, just 1.6s behind Farquhar, with Dunlop, Anstey and Lougher now in fourth to sixth.
Rutter still led at Glen Helen on lap three with Farquhar only pulling a second back on the nine-mile run from the Grandstand, but he had edged away from Cooper, the Molnar Norton rider now a further 6.8s in arrears. The Paton domination, that looked a formality before the race got underway, was certainly anything but and Rutter went 7.6s clear at Ballaugh with news subsequently coming through that Farquhar had stopped at Sulby Crossroads. There was further drama though when Rutter retired at the Mountain Mile.
Going into the final lap, it was Cooper who led by 13.9s but the man shooting back up the leaderboard was Lougher after a third lap of 110.550mph and he was back up to second ahead of Anstey as Dunlop retired from fourth at the pits.
Lougher’s multi-cylinder Paton was leading on the road through Glen Helen for the fourth and final time and although Cooper still led, the writing was on the wall as just 2.9s now separated the duo. Sure enough, the multiple TT winner hit the front for the first time at Ballaugh to the tune of nine seconds and, save for mechanical trouble, the race was his, an amazing comeback both in the race and in his career, having ‘retired’ from racing at the end of the 2013 season.
The fairytale story saw Lougher complete his final lap at 111.523mph, just over a second outside the class lap record, to win from Cooper by 34.4s with Anstey a further 44.2s back in third. Behan took an excellent fourth with Maria Costello and Mick Godfrey, a late replacement for the injured Keith Amor and John Barton, in sixth.
Charlie Williams, having his first race on the Mountain Course in 30 years, took an excellent ninth place having also lapped at more than 100mph.
