McGuinness wins Senior TT Race

HM Plant Honda’s John McGuinness blasted to a record breaking victory today in the Senior race at the Isle of Man centenary TT festival and achieved the first 130mph lap, breaking the lap and race time record. Ian Hutchinson also finished on the podium in a superb third position.

McGuinness controlled the race from start to finish by setting a blistering pace and leading fellow Honda rider Guy Martin by nearly 10 seconds on the first lap, with Hutchinson only 2.28 seconds behind in third place.

McGuinness continued to fly around the 37.73-mile circuit and smashed the lap record on his second lap, setting the fastest ever lap speed at 130.354 mph with a total lap time of 17:21.99 mins.

The 35-year-old’s first pit-stop was executed smoothly by the HM Plant Honda team and gave the Morecambe based rider a further seven second advantage over Martin.

Hutchinson pitted in at almost the same time as Martin and was lying 29.46 seconds ahead of fourth placed man Ian Lougher and maintained this lead on the start of the third of six laps.

Martin had tried to claw back some time on McGuinness, however the lead had been stretched to nearly 20 seconds and the HM Plant Honda rider was certainly in control of the race by the half-way point on lap three.

TT-ace McGuinness once again had a smooth pit-stop at the end of lap four and had managed to extend his lead to some 23 seconds.

Hutchinson also had a smooth pit-stop but suffered some loss of time in the first part of the fifth lap, dropping behind Martin by 40 seconds.

The 27-year-old from Bingley managed to maintain his lead over Lougher to cross the line in third position, giving him a one-hundred-percent podium record at this prestigious centenary event.

McGuinness, who is renowned for his expertise over the Mountain section, won the race by an outstanding 32.73 seconds to Martin thus making it the third Honda 1-2-3 of the week and John’s 13 th TT win.

John McGuinness
Senior TT race: P1

“I thoroughly enjoyed the race today. I concentrated so hard and figured I must’ve broken the 130mph record when I could hear everyone cheering on lap two, it’s amazing isn’t it. We made some changes since the Superbike race on Monday to the gearing so we were going out a little untested and thankfully everything went to plan. The whole package is brilliant and that bike has now won four TT races as it’s the same one I used last year. Thanks to Honda and to the team for all of their effort, it’s been an incredible week.”

Ian Hutchinson
Senior TT race: P3

“I’m pleased to have finished on the podium in every race. I’ve struggled a bit with the Superbike this year and I got held up a lot in the first few laps with slower riders and yellow flags. I’d like to thank Honda and the team for giving me the opportunity to race some special bikes and it’s great we achieved another Honda 1-2-3. I am very pleased to have been part of this centenary TT festival.”

Team Manager Neil Tuxworth
“From a racing point of view it has been an incredible week for Honda. The HM Plant Honda team have won five out of the six races at this centenary 2007 TT event, along with four manufacturer awards and our riders finishing on the podium in every race. We have encountered no machine problems for the whole of the two weeks and all in all it has been very successful for us.”