MIRACLE man Ian Hutchinson produced a magnificent double in Monday’s TT races when the Yorkshireman took two epic victories in the Monster Energy Supersport race one and the RL 360 Superstock race.
Hutchinson took his 12th TT Monster Energy Supersport race from start to finish. The CAME BPT Yamaha rider defeated Michael Dunlop by 14.3 seconds in a race-record winning time with Silicone Engineering rider Dean Harrison taking third.
Hutchinson signalled his intentions from the off and by Glen Helen on the opening lap, he’d already opened up a three-second lead over Harrison with Dunlop a further 10th back in third as James Hillier, Lee Johnston and John McGuinness completed the top six.
Michael Rutter was reported out at Ballacraine, with Peter Hickman stopping at Greeba to make adjustments and eventually retired on the opening lap. At the head of the field Hutchinson was pressing on, extending his advantage all the time and with a lap of 127.872mph, his lead was now over 10 seconds as Dunlop moved up to second. Harrison dropped back to third and Hillier, Johnston and McGuinness maintained their places in the top six.
Dunlop was unable to make any inroads into Hutchinson’s lead, which was seen with the Bingley Bullet’s second lap at 128.72mph, extending his lead to 12.8 seconds with Dunlop enjoying a similar gap to Harrison.
Conor Cummins moved into fourth ahead of Hillier and McGuinness, while the second lap saw a number of high profile retirements including Bruce Anstey, Ivan Lintin, Martin Jessopp and Dan Cooper.
The leading duo matched each other in the pits and by Ramsey on the third lap Hutchinson’s lead was over 10 seconds. The Yorkshireman was also at the front of the pack on the roads, having overhauled Hillier, McGuinness and Anstey on the first two laps. Harrison was comfortable in third and a lot of attention fell on the battle for fourth with little to choose between Cummins, Hillier and McGuinness.
With conditions on the island again perfect, Hutchinson could ride to his signals in the closing lap-and-a-half. Although he encountered traffic on the final lap, he duly came home for his 12th TT win – his seventh in the Supersport class – by over 14 seconds from Dunlop who had a 38.6 second gap over Harrison.
The battle for fourth went all the way to the wire before Hillier secured it by the narrow margin of 0.7 seconds from Cummins with McGuinness only a further four seconds back in sixth.
Lee Johnston, William Dunlop, Steve Mercer and Gary Johnson rounded out the top 10 with the latter losing valuable time in the pits when his Triumph refused to fire at the end of the second lap.
Hutchinson, later in the day, took a comfortable win in the Superstock race to notch up TT win number 13th. He lead from start to finish in the four lap race on his Tyco BMW after his nearest rival Michael Dunlop retired at the pits at the end of lap one.
Dean Harrison took second place with James Hillier in third.
