Miracle win for Molyneux

HM Plant Honda Sidecar team Dave Molyneux and Rick Long scored a miracle victory yesterday for the first of two races at the Isle of Man TT Festival.

After a trouble-filled practice week the HM Plant Honda pair got a relatively poor start to the three lap race. They were lying in third place, 12.46 seconds behind the race leaders, when they reached the Ramsey Hairpin on the first lap.

After a premature exit for the leading team, Molyneux and Long were elevated to second position with their Honda CBR600RR powered sidecar. However, the Manx based duo were still 10.05 seconds behind race-leaders John Holden and Andrew Winkle on completion of lap one.

Brave Molyneux, who had suffered a serious crash at this event last year, made an outstanding charge and managed to bring the gap down to just 1.86 seconds in the superb weather conditions by the end of lap two; despite being much slower through the speed traps compared with other competitors.

Molyneux and Long went on to storm around the 37.73-mile circuit, taking victory by an unbelievable 6.5 seconds ahead of Holden and Winkle to make it Molyneux’s 12th TT victory, a phenomenal result considering all of the problems the team have encountered this week.

Dave Molyneux Driver

TT Sidecar Race A P1

“This is probably one of the most unexpected wins of my life. We are very happy as electronic problems have plagued us throughout practice week and even on the first lap I didn’t expect to finish in the top ten as we were suffering some issues. When I saw third place on the pit board I knew we had a chance so we pushed as hard as possible. I had a big crash last year and didn’t even think I’d be fit enough to race here; I’ve gone to great lengths to be prepared and to get my shoulder well enough. We’ve got another race on Wednesday and although we’ve had some problems with the bike I hope that we can use the data we’ve gained today to improve the situation for the race. Overall I am very pleased and it’s even more special to win at this centenary event.”

HM Plant Honda Team Manager Neil Tuxworth

“Today’s performance from both Dave and Rick is absolutely incredible. The Molyneux outfit is one of the slowest through the speed traps and at one point they were 22 seconds down on the leaders. To then come through and win by more than 5 seconds, considering all the problems they have encountered, is really outstanding.”

The second sidecar race takes place on Wednesday 6 June.