Ian Hutchinson admitted he was worried about throwing away his first Isle of Man TT win as the miles unfolded during today’s PokerStars Supersport TT.
The Yorkshire had to beat a hard-charging John McGuinness to take victory in the four-lap race. Despite being up against a 12-times TT winner, Hutchy held his nerve to take the victory, and a new race record!
Leaving Ramsey on the final circuit, the gap between Hutchinson and McGuinness was under seven seconds, but over the Mountain stretch the Morecambe rider slashed the difference – to just 2.8 seconds at the line.
Hutchinson said he was aware of the threat, but didn’t want to push too hard and throw away a possible win.
He said:
‘I didn’t want to try any harder. If you start to try to go harder, that’s when you make a mistake.’
‘I know John is really strong over the Mountain, so I just tried everything I could to make sure all my lines were perfect, the gear changes were perfect and I wasn’t braking later than I had before.’
‘I did four laps perfectly. I came onto the last lap thinking I must do a gear change wrong somewhere, that’s why I was taking extra care at the end, because everything had gone so perfectly.’
Hutchison was riding in the HM Plant Honda colours so associated with McGuinness. But for this race, Monday’s Superbike rider had turned to Padgett’s for machinery.
Asked if he felt extra pressure taking the team seat over his illustrious teammate, Hutchinson said:
‘I said this would be the one where I wouldn’t get a podium when the HM Plants had been on every podium. There has been a bit of pressure, but I haven’t really thought about it.’
Asked if winning this year meant something extra after being excluded from a podium position in 2006, Hutchy simply replied:
‘Yeah.’
Summing up the feelings of many, including riders and fans, Hutchy added:
‘It was an enjoyable race, the weather was absolutely perfect.’