By Lee Johnston took his tally of Oliver’s Mount, Scarborough victories to 12, after a scintillating opening Supersport A Race at the 69th Scarborough Gold Cup.
Race leader for the opening four laps, Ashcourt Racing’s Johnston was soaking up the pressure from good friend, reigning Senior TT Champion Dean Harrison before the Bradford rider hit the front.
Harrison making a one off return this weekend to the RC Express Racing (Dafabet Devitt Racing) team, moved 0.440 clear of Johnston on lap five, setting the fastest lap of the race held in drying conditions all round, lapping at 1 minute 47.160 seconds.
2019 Gold Cup winner Johnston though wasn’t giving up and by lap seven was just 0.291 behind Harrison.
The eighth and final lap saw Johnston perhaps surprise some by overhauling Scarborough maestro Harrison, to take race honours by just 0.318 of a second.
Rounding out the first three finishers behind Johnston, Harrison was pole sitter Team ILR with Mark Coverdale’s Jim Hind, who dipped under the 1 minute 48 seconds barrier on route to getting the better of DC Racing’s Mike Norbury for third.
2018 Junior Classic TT winner Dominic Herbertson took fifth, Joe Akroyd occupied sixth as Joe Thompson, Super Twins Race 1 victor Jamie Coward, Rob Hodson and Tom Weeden finalised the top ten finishers.
Supersport A Race 1 result in full, is as follows:
1 Lee Johnston
2 Dean Harrison
3 Jim Hind
4 Mike Norbury
5 Dominic Herbertson
6 Joe Akroyd
7 Joe Thompson
8 Jamie Coward
9 Rob Hodson
10 Tom Weeden
11 Brad Vicars
12 Don Gilbert
13 Steven Haddow
14 Steven Procter
15 Callum Ward
16 Sam Johnson
17 Daniel Forbes
18 Mark Goodings
19 Aran Sadler
20 Russell Brook
Words by Stevie Rial
