Birchall brothers Ben and Tom avenged their disappointment of Saturday as they surged to a comfortable first victory in the second Sure TT Sidecar race running well clear of the 16 times TT race winner Dave Molyneux and Patrick Farrance.
The 15 minute delay to the start, caused by one of the Subaru demonstration cars tangling with Sulby Bridge and coming off second best, made no difference to the Birchalls as they were determined to show what might have been in the first race when an error, clipping a grass back left them sidelined with a puncture.
Ben Birchall said: We chipped away but it was so hard to lead the race, and I kept saying to myself, ' Don't think about it, do the job' then on the second lap we pushed to so hard and then it was a case of just bringing it home."
They made a rapid get-away, just as they had in Saturday's opener, and they had pulled out a couple of seconds on the first race winning duo of four times Tim Reeves and Dan Sayle as they dashed through Glen Helen for the first time. The Mansfield brothers were building on that advantage by the mile. By the end of the opening lap they were ten seconds clear of the four times World Champion Reeves.
Dave Molyneux and Patrick Farrance moved into third place at the expense of Conrad Harrison/Mike Aylott and by the time they reached Ballaugh Bridge on the second lap the Manxman was up to second following the retirement Reeves. Out front, the Birchalls were running a little over 20 seconds clear but Molyneux was giving nothing away, clawing four seconds back over the Mountain as they completed two laps.
The Birchalls had clocked their fastest ever lap, at 114.662mph, despite clipping the bank at Milntown, as they battled to keep their lead over Molyneux and on the final dash to Glen Helen they had stretched a little further their advantage to 17.8secs. Harrison was comfortably third ahead of John Holden/Andy Winkle.
Charging along the Sulby Straight at 144.9mph, the Birchalls extended their lead to 20secs over Molyneux into Ramsey, only to drop two seconds on the climb over Mountain, but they held firm to take their first TT victory by 17.352secs. Harrison took a comfortable third ahead of Holden.
