John McGuinness has bagged his 19th career TT win this evening, taking victory in the Royal London 360° Superstock race ahead of a late-charging Michael Dunlop and it is the first time McGuinness has won in this class on Mona's Isle.
The Padgett's Honda man, whose fuel light came on going along the Mountain Mile, was headed only once in the race as Ryan Farquhar led from Ramsey to Cronk-ny-Mona on lap one and it looked like the Dungannon man was going to take second but a final lap of 129.253mph from Dunlop saw him just slip in front of Farquhar at the Bungalow on the final lap.
"The Superstock race was really tough but I concentrated really hard and having come close before, I really, really wanted it today. It was close early on and I pushed and pushed as hard as I could but I had a major scare on the second lap when the bike started to run low on fuel. I had to nurse the bike home over the last few miles and I’m surprised I didn’t lose much time," said McGuinness.
"I had a bit of a buffer and was able to ease away in the final two laps and then take it steady over the Mountain for the last time just to make sure we had enough fuel to get home. I was able to use my experience and make sure I didn't over rev the bike, short shifted where I could and after chasing a Superstock win for a long time, I've finally done it and it means a lot.”
Starting from number one, McGuinness led into Glen Helen but was being chased hard by the fast-starting James Hiller, Gary Johnson, Farquhar and Supersport race one winner Bruce Anstey who was only two seconds down after eight miles of racing.
At Ballaugh, Farquhar had moved into second and was a second in arrears while Guy Martin had taken over in fifth while Johnson slipped out of the top five. Farquhar was 0.09s ahead at Ramsey, which he doubled at the Bunglow but McGuinness was back in charge at the Cronk and was never headed again.
Lap two saw McGuinness and Farquhar stretch their lead over Anstey to more than eight seconds while Michael Rutter put in an appearance in fifth but by Ballaugh, he had been usurped by Dunlop and at Ramsey, the Ballymoney rider was in front of Martin.
At the Bunglow, McGuinness headed Farquhar by five seconds while Anstey had Dunlop for company. The Kiwi had a one-second cushion which he kept into the pitstops at the end of lap two. McGuinness lapped at 128.806mph and left the pits four seconds ahead of Farquhar.
It was up to six seconds at Glen Helen while Dunlop had fallen back to fifth in the pits and Martin benefitted from a quick stop and new rear tyre to move into third place. By the jump at Ballugh, however, Dunlop was back into third and beginning to hunt down Farquhar.
Ramsey saw Anstey go back into fourth ahead of Martin and they held station until the Bungalow on lap four when Dunlop passed Farquhar. It was a massively fast lap from Dunlop to take second place and a gracious Farquhar said he had nothing left in the tank, so settled for third. Anstey and Martin were fourth and fifth place.
Hillier finished only four seconds behind Martin in the end with veteran Rutter in seventh. Johnson slipped to eighth with Dan Stewart ninth and a strangely out-of-form Cameron Donald, whose team-mate William Dunlop retired, in tenth. Ian Hutchinson, Stefano Bonetti, David Johnson, Ian Mackman and Adrian Archibald complete the top 15.
