McGuinness maintains TT form
The incredible form which saw John McGuinness claim his 12th and 13th TT wins, as well as smash the 130mph lap, is continuing.
The Morecambe rider has seen his short circuit performance improve since conquering the Isle of Man’s Mountain Course again at the Centenary TT.
At the weekend, at round eight of the British Supersport Championship, McGuinness brought his Padgett’s Honda home second at the end of the 14-lap race.
He was on the pace in the dry during qualifying at Oulton Park, taking second on the grid, and in the wet during the rain-lashed race. It was his first podium finish on a short circuit since Brands Hatch in 2004.
It was also a good race for another TT favourite, Ian Hutchinson. The man who scored his first TT victory during the Centenary event picked up the win ahead of the man he beat to the Supersport TT title.
Hutchy took the lead from McGuinness at the end of lap one, but after nine laps the gap was just 0.37 seconds. After a couple of ‘moments’, McGuinness settled for a safe second place.
He said:
‘It’s absolutely mega to get on to the podium and. having been competitive all year long on the Padgett’s Honda, I think we were about due a taste of the champagne.’
‘I wasn’t that confident in the wet on Friday, but qualifying in the dry on Saturday went excellently so I was feeling good going into the race. We tried a different front tyre in morning warm up, which no one else favoured, but it was a lot better for me and I went with that for the race.’
‘I got a great start and went for it as hard as I could on the first lap and although Hutchy came by, we had already opened up a decent gap over third. We’ve got quite a friendly rivalry at the moment and are spurring each other on, but after a couple of dodgy moments, especially a big one coming out of Hizzy’s, I lost a bit of ground.’
‘It was so easy to tip off and I could see on my pit board that I was over 7 seconds clear of third so concentrated on hitting all my apexes and brought the bike home.’
‘Not so long ago people had written me off on the short circuits, so it’s nice to prove to everyone that I can still do a good job and it’s great to be back on the podium.’
McGuinness is now sixth in the championship table heading into round nine, at Mallory Park this weekend.
Phil Wain