Gary Johnson: I didn't even know about speeding penalty
Gary Johnson didn’t realise he had received a time penalty for speeding in the pit lane until after the race had finished.
The Honda rider battled his way to third place in the Dainese Superbike TT on Saturday, the opening race of the 2011 Isle of Man TT fuelled by Monster Energy.
The penalty saw Johnson drop from second to fourth, but the Broughton racer said he hadn’t realise the lost time was due to a penalty and decided he needed to ‘put the hammer down’.
Johnson was hopeful of a good result after some stunning times in practice and went into the six-lap race feeling confident. During his pit stop at the end of lap two, Johnson exceeded the pit lan speed limit and was handed a 30 second penalty, dropping down the field.
He moved back up to third when Padgetts Honda’s Bruce retired with mechanical problems, but was dropped back down to fourth again when the flying Guy Martin moved ahead. However, there would be more drama on the fifth lap when Martin’s Relentless Suzuki by TAS Racing GSX-R1000 retired at Hillberry.
Johnson said:
“I was aiming my sights at a podium today and didn’t even know I had been penalised for speeding in the pit lane.”
“First time I saw my pit board at the Gooseneck I was P2 and then next time I was P4 so I thought I had best put the hammer down. I pushed as hard as I could, but the front end went off a little bit and it made my last sector a bit slower than I had hoped.”
“But to finish in third place with a 30 second penalty is great.”
Meanwhile, Keith Amor put in a brave ride to bring the Honda TT Legends machine home in fourth place. Still suffering with the shoulder injury he suffered in Wednesday evening's practice session, Amor was able to put in two 128mph+ laps for his best ever result in a TT Superbike race.
After putting in a solid practice lap the previous evening, Amor decided he was fit enough to race although he wasn't sure if he would be able to go full race distance. Nevertheless, he got stuck in from the start and a solid opening lap of 128.182mph saw him slot into 8th place, a position he maintained on lap 2 despite lapping slightly quicker at 128.254mph.
Struggling more with a gearbox problem than with his shoulder, Amor still managed to jump up to fifth at the end of lap 3, and when Martin retired on the fifth lap he was promoted to 4th, where he finished almost a minute clear of Michael Dunlop
Amor said:
"The shoulder was ok for the first four laps and although it obviously wasn't at its strongest it wasn't giving me any trouble. For the last two laps it started to give me a bit of grief so I just brought the bike home. There was little strength in it by the end, but, hopefully, some more work on it by the physios between now and the next race should see me a lot closer to where I wanted to be.”
“There was a really strong head wind along Sulby and up on the Mountain, but the hardest part of the race was the gearbox problem that I had and it was a real struggle as I wasn't sure what the bike was going to do. I thought about stopping at the pit,s but I decided to press on and, luckily for me, it held on until the finish.”
“I was glad that I did persevere as a few of the boys dropped out and that allowed me to move up the order so to finish 4th, all things considered, is a pretty good result. The bike was handling so much better, the best it's been all week, so a big thanks to the team and, if the shoulder improves like I hope it does, we shouldn't be too far away in the Senior."
The next races are on Monday when Johnson will race the East Coast Racing 600cc Honda in the Monster Energy Supersport 1 race and Lincs Lifting Fireblade in the Royal London Superstock TT, while Amor will campaign the KBMG Hondas in both of the four-lap races.