Michael Dunlop’s led today’s Supersport race at the Isle of Man from start to finish and added his name to a list of legendary names – Giacomo Agostini, Stanley Woods, Rob Fisher and Ian Lougher – with 10 TT wins. In second was Valvoline Racing/Padgetts Honda’s Bruce Antsey and in third was Tyco Suzuki’s William Dunlop.
In the early stages it was the two Dunlop brothers and Anstey spilt by just a second at Glen Helen with Dean Harrison only a tenth of a second back in fourth. Privateer Ivan Lintin was the early sensation of the race in fifth, while two of the early contenders had to retire on the opening lap – Ian Hutchinson at Glen Darragh Road and Conor Cummins at the Highlander.
The younger of the Dunlop brothers, Michael, was able to eke out a slight lead by Ramsey and the gap to Anstey was at two seconds while William slipped back to third – albeit only half a second behind. Harrison was a further two seconds back with Lintin maintaining his fifth place ahead of Australian Josh Brookes and Northern Ireland racer Lee Johnston.
An opening lap of 126.256 mph gave Dunlop a lead of 4.5 seconds over Anstey with the top four remaining the same.
As it progressed Dunlop was getting closer and closer to Antsey’s back wheel – the gap at Glen Helen on corrected time second time around 6.9 seconds – and by Ramsey, Dunlop was with him. With his lead up to nine seconds, he could now afford to sit with Anstey for the remainder of the race.
The 25-year old completed the second lap at 127.403 mph, the fastest lap of the race, with the official margin to Bruce 9.36 seconds. William Dunlop was six seconds back in third but was looking more secure in the position as Harrison was now also six seconds behind. Brookes and Lintin continued to hold station in fifth and sixth.
There was little change over the remaining two laps as the leading contenders were all secure in their positions but there was drama on the final lap when Brookes and Lee Johnston – holding onto fifth and seventh respectively at Ramsey on the final lap – went out after an incident at Creg-ny-Baa, fortunately both escaping injury.
At the head of the field though, there were no such problems and with Anstey showing great sportsmanship in allowing Dunlop to cross the line first, he took his third win of the week, and tenth in total, ahead of Anstey and brother William.
Harrison took another good fourth place finish with James Hillier enjoying a better race in fifth, eleven seconds clear of Keith Amor who made steady progression up the leaderboard throughout the race.
Lintin took seventh, and was comfortably the first privateer home, with Dan Kneen, Dan Stewart and Guy Martin rounding out the remaining top ten positions.
The win makes Michael Dunlop a clear leader in the Joey Dunlop TT Championship with 91 points followed by Anstey at 69 and Harrison at 54. Anstey needs to win Friday’s Senior to have any chance of topping the younger Dunlop.
2014 Isle of Man TT
Supersport Race 2 Results:
1. Michael Dunlop (Honda)
2. Bruce Anstey (Honda)
3. William Dunlop (Suzuki)
4. Dean Harrison (Yamaha)
5. James Hillier (Kawasaki)
6. Keith Amor (Honda)
7. Ivan Lintin (Honda)
8. Dan Kneen (Honda)
9. Dan Stewart (Honda)
10. Guy Martin (Suzuki)
