DOMINIC Herbertson held off Jamie Coward to take his first Classic TT and Mountain Course victory in today’s Locate.im Junior Classic race.
The Davies Motorsport Honda rider took advantage of defending winner Michael Rutter’s mid-race retirement as he stormed to the line in the first race of today’s severely-delayed programme.
Pre-race favourite Rutter was quickest from the off, hitting Glen Helen half a second faster than Coward with Herbertson just over three seconds adrift.
The TT veteran stretched four seconds over Coward by the time they began the mountain climb at Ramsey, with Herbertson dropping another couple of seconds on Coward and Hefyn Owen beginning to chip away at third with 17s to make up.
But by the time the leaders passed the grandstand to begin the second of a shortened three laps, Herbertson had poked his head through into second, taking over Coward’s spot by just 0.2s but still with over nine seconds to cut in his pursuit of Rutter.
Defending Junior winner Rutter was quickly under threat as Herbertson turned on the afterburners and sliced his gap to just five seconds at Ramsey, chopping it to 1.7s at the Bungalow and snatching the lead with four seconds to spare by the time they hit Cronk-Ny-Mona.
But disaster struck for Rutter as he pulled into the pits with a flat rear tyre, leaving Herbertson to fly on his final lap with a 14s cushion over Coward.
Coward began to pull back a bit of time on Herbertson, reeling in four seconds at the Bungalow, but Coward couldn’t cut all the time and Herbertson claimed his very first win around the TT Mountain Course by over 10s while Lee Johnston bagged third.
Retirements included Sam Johnson, Jack Hunter, Chris Swallow, Chris McGann, Hefyn Owen, Mark Herbertson, Rutter and Phil McGurk.
Locate.im Junior Classic TT Race results (provisional)
- Dominic Herbertson
- Jamie Coward
- Lee Johnston
- Alan Oversby
- Dan Cooper
- Adam McLean
- Peter Boast
- Davey Todd
- Dave Madsen-Mygdal
- Steve Ferguson
*Click here for results from the Manx Grand Prix and Classic TT
*Main image: Kevin Clague
