By Superstock TT race report
The superstock TT race of 2012 started at 6:30 PM on Monday evening with John Mcguinness setting the field at number 1 on the road on his Padgetts honda superstocker. Second off was Ryan Farquhar on the KMR Kawasaki and at the first check point it was Mcguinness slightly in front of Ryan Farquhar with Guy Martin fourth just behind Gary Johnson on the Honda TT legends superstock bike. By the Ramsey checkpoint on lap 1 it was Farquhar now in front but by only fractions ahead of Mcguinness with Martin, Anstey, Gary Johnson and James Hillier battling it out from 3rd to 6th.
On lap two John Mcguinness started to edge away from Ryan Farquhar on the Kawasaki with Michael Dunlop starting to come into contention for the podium positions with 3rd now held by Bruce Anstey on the second Padgetts superstock bike. After the pit stops Mcguinness had a 4 second lead over Farquhar who was also 11 seconds ahead of Anstey and Martin with Michael Dunlop, James Hillier, Michael Rutter and Gary Johnson all rounding out the top 8. By the end of lap two Mcguinness increased his lead with relentlessly consistent laps around always the 128 mph mark. Farquhar was still in second by the end of lap 2 onto lap 3 but Michael Dunlop was now up to third and was reeling him in.
Lap 3 saw Mcguinness increase his advantage even further over Farquhar who was now suffering from slight mechanical issues with Michael Dunlop still in third place but who was getting faster and faster as the race went on. Anstey and Martin where still in 4th and 5th place with James Hillier in sixth not to far behind them both. Further down the leaderboard in the early part of the race William Dunlop was forced to retire on lap 2 whilst his team mate in the Wilson Craig team Cameron Donald was down in 10th place. In 7th at the end of lap 3 was Michael Rutter on the MSS Bathams Kawasaki superstock bike.
On the final lap Mcguinness did everything he had to do to take his 19th TT win and his second so far of TT 2012 race week. Finishing in second place after a quite brilliant final lap of over 129 mph was Michael Dunlop on the Mcadoo Kawasaki superstock bike. 3rd was Ryan Farquhar on the KMR Kawasaki with 4th place going to Bruce Anstey with Guy Martin and James Hillier in 5th and 6th place both not far behind Bruce on the Padgetts superstock bike. 7th was Michael Rutter, 8th was Gary Johnson, 9th was Dan Stewart and rounding out the top 10 was Cameron Donald.
Some top rides further down the field included Italian rider Stefano Bonetti finshing in 12th place on his Kawasaki with fellow Kawasaki mounted rider David Johnson from Australia finishing 13th on the Quattro plant Kawasaki superstock bike. Both of these riders here achieved personal best finishes others to have achieved their best ever TT finishes included Alessio Corradi on a BMW who finished in 17th place lapping at over 124 mph. Overall an enjoyable race and one that brought another landmark in John Mcguinness TT career his first ever Superstock TT win.
By Stevie Rial
