Having been plagued with poor weather for the practice period, the big news from this year’s Classic TT (presented by Bennetts) was that John McGuinness won the Bennetts Senior race on his return to road racing after a 15-month break due to injury
In fact, John hadn’t raced on the Mountain circuit since his first win in the Classic TT back in 2016. John was, once more, riding the Winfield Paton, while fellow Paton rider Maria Costello dropped out of the race so wasn’t able to repeat her podium position of two years ago.
On his way to a clear win, McGuinness recorded three laps at more than 110mph, while Jamie Coward grabbed runner-up on the Craven Manx Norton, and Lee Johnston claimed third on the Davies Motorsport four cylinder Honda 500.
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After a delayed start to the Bennetts Senior Classic, due to an additional practice session being squeezed in on the Saturday morning, McGuinness also jumped aboard Mike Hailwood’s Ducati for a demonstration lap to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Mike the Bike’s incredible comeback win in ’78 after 11 years away from the island, with the Morecambe Missile wearing leathers to match.
The first race day was concluded with the Dunlop Lightweight, with Lee Johnston aboard the Padgetts Honda RS250 on which Bruce Anstey won last year’s race. Anstey wasn’t racing due to illness, although he did take to the track on a demonstration lap aboard a Honda RCV supplied by Padgetts.
Read more and view more images in the October 2018 issue of OBM – on sale now!
