John McGuinness enjoyed another strong day of racing at the Isle of Man TT races on Monday with the Morecambe Missile taking fifth and sixth place finishes in the four-lap Supersport and Superstock races.
With clear blue skies and warm sunshine again bathing the island, the proceedings started with the morning’s Supersport race where John was riding the Jackson Racing CBR600RR Honda and a good opening lap of 125.194mph placed him in fifth place after the first 37 and ¾ miles.
Second time around, John quickened his speed to 125.973mph although such was the pace of the race, this dropped him back a place to sixth. However, he maintained this position all the way to the chequered flag with the final lap seeing him set his best lap of the race at 126.329mph. After the race had finished, runner-up Michael Dunlop was disqualified for a technical infringement and this promoted John up the order to fifth.
With little rest, John was soon back out on the Mountain Course for the four-lap Superstock race, this time riding the EMC2/Bet Victor CBR1000RR Honda Fireblade and the 44-year old put in yet another excellent ride.
With an opening lap of 129.280mph, John found himself down in tenth place but this was only eight seconds adrift of fourth and for the remainder of the race, it was nip and tuck all the way between a group of riders including John. A second lap of 130.228mph, his first 130mph lap on a Superstock machine, elevated him up the order to seventh and with a fantastic pit stop by his team, he was up to fourth when he swept through Glen Helen on the third lap.
He was still in fourth as he started his final lap but the time gaps between him, Gary Johnson and Michael Rutter were negligible and positions changed hands at each of the timing points around the course. With Rutter and Johnson both lapping in excess of 130mph on their final lap, John had to settle for sixth place after 150.92 miles of racing where he was the first Honda machine to finish.
John McGuinness:
“It’s been a good, solid day all round and to lap at 130.3mph on my stocker is especially pleasing as the BMWs and Kawasakis have considerably more bhp than what we do. I was only tenth after the first lap but I didn’t panic and I slowly but surely clawed my way up the leaderboard. I had a bit of a fuel issue on both the second and fourth laps though and on the last lap, the fuel light came on at Schoolhouse Corner, which is a long way from home!”
“The last thing you want as a rider is to keep the revs down and nurse the bike home but that’s what I had to do and I was barely revving the bike above 10,000 rpm on that last lap. I’ve really enjoyed the races today and I felt that I rode really well, as well as I’ve ever done, so to take two top six finishes in two of the toughest, most competitive races is pleasing. Neither the Jackson Racing Honda or EMC2/Bet Victor Honda missed a beat and the teams have done a great job with the bikes.”John’s back in action on Wednesday for the second Supersport race and also the TT Zero race where he’ll be riding the latest generation Mugen.
