Guy Martin draws first blood at rain-struck Southern 100

Guy Martin has drawn first blood at this year’s Southern 100, starting where he left off twelve months ago by taking victory in the Senior race. The race comes after two days of heavy rain that has upset the order at the Manx event, but Martin was able to hold off Michael Dunlop and Dean Harrison when racing eventually got underway.

He didn’t have it all his own way, however, only taking the win by 0.092 from Dunlop after the pair spent the seven-lap race scrapping it out

“I said before I came here that we had discovered a good base setting on the Tyco BMW at the TT, but the Southern would be a stiff test. Today was the first time out in the dry and even though it was a bit of an unknown, the track was in great shape and the S1000RR was well up to it.

“Michael Dunlop came with me, and fair play to him, but we made a fair bit of ground on Dean in third. There’s certainly more to come and I’m sure it will make for an interesting race tomorrow for the Solo Championship. I think I’m now on the same amount of wins as god old Jason Griffiths!”

The other big winner of the night was Ivan Lintin on the RC Express Kawasaki lightweight bike he took to TT success on his last trip to the Isle of Man, holding off James Cowton and Jamie Coward, while sidecar world champion Tim Reeves extended his streak with a win in the F2 class.