Manx Grand Prix: Farrell Leads Irish 1-2-3 Finish In Opening Lightweight Race

Manx Grand Prix: Farrell Leads Irish 1-2-3 Finish In Opening Lightweight Race

Decent conditions, weather, albeit getting a touch breezy greeted competitors for this afternoon’s opening Lightweight race of this years Manx Grand Prix, which provided more compelling, close fought, exciting Mountain Course action.

Moving into the race lead at Glen Helen on lap 1 was recently crowned Mylchreests Junior champion, James Chawke. Chawke piloting Mark Coverdale’s factory supported S1-R Paton held a minor 0.32 advantage over fellow countryman Andy Farrell, who in turn was only 1.669 in front of two stroke stalwart Gary Vines.

The tight battle for class supremacy continued at Ballaugh Bridge and Ramsey Hairpin, which saw Chawke up the race lead to just over 2.4 seconds.

By the Bungalow though, his advantage was reduced significantly to under 0.6 of a second as Ollies Place/JFR Racing backed Farrell started to hit top form.

Encapsulating this point, Farrell moved into the race lead at the completion of lap 1, holding a plus three seconds advantage over Chawke, with TZ 250 Yamaha mounted Vines under two seconds further behind in third.

Photo by Nick Wheeler

The battle royal out front continued on lap 2, with 2015 Newcomers B victor Vines more than matching the pace of Farrell and Chawke.

As seen in previous races though, drama a foot was soon on the horizon as fourth placed Victor Lopez Santos retired at Greeba Bridge, before 250 specialist Vines dropped out of contention at the 33rd Milestone.

Photo by Mark Corlett

This left Farrell and Chawke to battle it out for class honours, with Farrell starting to control the race at Cronk Ny Mona, moving almost five seconds clear.

Nearing class lap record pace lapping at 114.247 mph, the race runner up from 12 months ago held a nigh on eight second lead, upon entering the pits at the conclusion of lap two.

The third and final lap saw Farrell keep his cool and maintain his impressive form, to ultimately seal a long awaited first Manx Grand Prix victory.

Second place finisher, Junior race victor Chawke 15.271 behind Farrell, in the winners enclosure couldn’t speak high enough about his S1-R Paton steed, plus issued a huge thanks to Mark Coverdale, Ian Lougher, Carl Roberts for helping to supply the machine.

Martin Bullock Manxsport’s David Lumsden made it an all Irish podium, as ‘The Hammer’ secured a third Manx GP podium finish, finishing over 50 seconds clear of fellow countryman Dave Butler.

Concluding the top ten finishers were Gareth Evans, Chris Moore, Jamie Edwards, Dave Quine, son of Manx Radio TT commentator Roy Moore, Peter Moore and Paul Wardell.

Race results are as follows:

1 Andy Farrell
2 James Chawke
3 David Lumsden
4 Dave Butler
5 Gareth Evans
6 Chris Moore
7 Jamie Edwards
8 Dave Quine
9 Peter Moore
10 Paul Wardell
11 Leon Murphy
12 Rodger Wibberley
13 Trevor Matthewson
14 Stephen Ault
15 Ali Foster
16 Brian Appleton
17 Nige Rea
18 Renzo Van Der Donckt
19 Alun Thomas
20 Tommy Henry
21 John Bain
22 Ian Stanford
23 Wayne Martin
24 Paul Williams
25 Eric Lenser

Words by Stevie Rial

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