By After an hour and a half delay due to early morning rain, the 2016 Junior Manx Grand Prix, got underway in decent conditions around the Mountain Course.
The four lap race would prove an absolute classic, as Tom Weeden and Andy Dudgeon battled it out for race victory.
The opening laps would see Weeden move into a nine second lead prior to the scheduled pit stop, soon his lead went down to 4.247 seconds over nearest challenger Dudgeon, who after lap 1 was in third place.
Photo by Jim Gibson
By lap three the Manxman had closed firmly in on his fellow rising roads star. At the completion of the penultimate lap, he moved into race lead by 0.132 over Weeden.
Andy Farrell who at the time was in third place, was involved in an incident just before Glen Helen at the start of lap four. He was reported to have sustained leg and arm injuries, speedy recovery to the popular Skerries based rider.
Race leaders Dudgeon and Weeden swapped positions at Ballaugh Bridge, before Dudgeon went back into 1st place at Ramsey Hairpin, holding a lead of roughly 2.6 seconds.
The gap at the front was whittled down to two seconds at the Bungalow, before extending at Cronk Ny Mona, as Dudgeon 2.98 clear of Weeden, was closing in on what would be a second Manx GP victory.
He powered the Slick Bass backed GSX-R 600 Suzuki down the finish line, to secure Junior Manx GP victory, setting a new race record in the process, plus lapping for the first time in excess of 120 mph, following lap speed of 120.212 mph.
Tom Weeden piloting his own teams 675 Daytona Triumph, finished just 3.707 behind, lapping on the final lap at 119.833 mph.
Oilee Racing’s Joe Akroyd completed the podium finishers, a great performance from a rider competing for only the second time on the Mountain Course.
Barry Evans impressed in finishing fourth, Michael Moulai was fifth as Martin Bullock Manxsport’s David Lumsden rounded out the first six finishers.
Additional impressive performances included Richard Charlton 7th, Glenn Harrison in 8th on the Chris Preston Racing backed GSX-R 600 Suzuki and Darren Cooper finishing in 11th place.
Brendan Fargher finished the leading newcomer in 13th, fellow Mountain Course newcomers Mark Foster, Callum Ward and Sean Montgomery recorded 25th, 39th and 41st place finishes respectively.
Manx Grand Prix 2016 – Junior Race Results:
1 Andy Dudgeon
2 Tom Weeden
3 Joe Akroyd
4 Barry Evans
5 Michael Moulai
6 David Lumsden
7 Richard Charlton
8 Royce Rowe
9 Glenn Harrison
10 Dennis Booth
11 Darren Cooper
12 Richard Wilson
13 Brendan Fargher
14 Gareth Evans
15 Jamie Hodson
16 Dean Osborne
17 Jason Corcoran
18 Thomas Gottschalk
19 Sean Connolly
20 Steven Procter
21 Rob Whittall
22 Allan Brodie
23 Damian Horan
24 Lee Hembury
25 Mark Foster
26 Masayuki Yamanaka
27 Shaun Evans
28 Matt Mylchreest
29 Frederic Besnard
30 Chris Cook
31 Mike Minns
32 Marc Colvin
33 Justin Collins
34 Gaz Evans
35 Rad Hughes
36 Andy Lovett
37 Jason Brewster
38 James Chawke
39 Callum Ward
40 Emmett Burke
41 Sean Montgomery
42 Sam Johnson
43 Jim Barnett
44 Andy McPherson
45 Vinny Brennan
46 Stephen Carmichael
47 Leon Murphy
48 Iain Hill
49 Stuart Hall
50 Ross Orchard
51 Ian Gardner
52 Pete Murray
53 Tommy Henry
54 Jason Heritage
55 Austin Wren
56 Kevin Barsby
57 Mark Watson
58 David Combrinck
59 Richard Duncan
60 Rob Mitchel-Hill
61 Matt Moore
62 Stuart Bedford
63 Andreas Psychogyios
64 Derek Wilson
Words by Stevie Rial
