McGuinness takes lightweight race

John McGuinness has won the second race at this year’s Isle of Man TT comfortably taking the lightweight 400cc class while Chris Palmer topped the Ultralightweight 125cc class, both of which ran at the same time.

The race was initially delayed by two and a half hours while fog hovered over the Mountain but with visibility clearing the race got underway.

Richard Britton was the first rider away but by Glen Helen McGuinness was already two seconds ahead of him with Ryan Farquhar sitting in third.

McGuinness and Britton came into the pits together for a fuel stop at the end of lap two, closely followed by Farquhar. But by Glen Helen on lap three McGuinness had stretched his lead to 26 seconds.

As the riders passed the pits to commence their last lap McGuinness was holding his RVF400 at 125mph and had extended his lead to over 30 seconds with Ryan Farquhar sitting a further nine seconds behind second placed Britton.

McGuinness maintained his lead to the end of the lap taking his third TT win, commenting afterwards that once he had passed Britton he just kept his head down, slowing slightly on the last lap just to make sure he made it home.

Michael Wilcox led the 125cc race away but Chris Palmer was right on his pace and just 0.24 seconds separated the two riders at the end of the first lap.

By Ramsey Hairpin Palmer had passed Wilcox and was already seven seconds ahead. The gap increased throughout the rest of the race with Palmer eventually winning with a 39 second advantage.

Ian Lougher sat in third place throughout the race ahead of Robert Dunlop, who was hoping to take his sixth TT win at the race but eventually finished 1:26 behind Palmer.

Our TT privateer Chris McGovern came home in 17th place after an epic battle, finishing with a best lap of 101.78mph. Click the link on the right to read the full story.