English rider sweeps Isle of Man trophy races

On 7-may-10, at 6:49 pm, agawin,

Ian Hutchinson (middle) celebrates after winning one of his five Isle of Man TT races - a record.

Larry Tate

MOTORCYCLE WRITER

The world’s oldest motorcycle race, the two-week-long extravaganza known as the Isle of Man TT – TT is short for Tourist Trophy – ended last Friday with Padgett Honda’s Ian Hutchinson doing something that’s never been done in the event’s 103-year history.

He won all five races: Superbike, 1000 Superstock, both 600 Supersport events and the final Senior (open).

The closest to a sweep before came in 1996, when Phil McCallen took four. “Hutchy’s” result is likely to stand for many a year.

The quiet Yorkshireman had some luck, of course. Some top rivals (notably pre-race favourite and 15-time winner John McGuiness and local favourite Conor Cummins) had mechanical troubles during the week; some ended up in hospital (Steve Plater while racing in the NorthWest 200 in Ireland last month and Guy Martin and Cummins in the Senior race at the TT), and some fell afoul of the rules (in the Superbike race, Guy Martin was deemed to have exceeded the pit lane 60 km/h limit by 0.1 km/h and got a 30-second penalty).

But mostly, Hutchinson just out-rode his rivals.

Michael Dunlop, nephew of the late Joey Dunlop (at 22 wins, the all-time TT leader), came closest to beating Hutchinson in the second Supersport race, but the Yorkshireman pulled something out of the bag over the mountain section on the last lap to take a 1.5 second victory.

It was all the more amazing because he was sick as a dog with a desperately bad cold. Following his win over Dunlop, he was coughing and wheezing and could barely speak to be interviewed.

Regrettably, the almost inevitable occurred at this most forbidding of race circuits, covering as it does 37.73 miles (60.7 km) of stone-and-hedge-lined public roads through fields and towns. Two racers lost their lives – Paul Dobbs of New Zealand and Martin Loicht of Austria, both married with two children, died in separate incidents in the second Supersport race.

Moto GP

Injuries also played a huge role in the most recent Moto GP race at Mugello the weekend of June 6. Championship contender and fan favourite Valentino Rossi had a nasty high-side crash in practice, landed badly on one leg, and suffered a compound fracture of his right tibia. He’ll be out for at least three months, perhaps longer. It’s Rossi’s first serious racing injury in more than a decade at the top level of the sport.

Fiat Yamaha isn’t planning to replace him for two races while they sort out who might best fit into the biggest racing boots in the paddock, at least temporarily leaving team-mate Jorge Lorenzo of Majorca alone to carry the flag for the factory Fiat Yamaha team.

In the race itself, Spaniard Dani Pedrosa showed that recent changes to his Repsol Honda have been exactly what he needed, as he got the lead from the start and eased away to a dominant victory without ever having a challenge, his first victory of the 2010 campaign.

Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo took second without ever mounting a serious challenge to Pedrosa, while Italy’s Andrea Dovizioso covered third, giving Repsol Honda two podium spots for the first time this year.

While the race for the podium positions was disappointing for its lack of action, the group from fourth back to 10th was reminiscent of a bunch of axe-murderers having a brawl at closing time in a bar.

Casey Stoner, the fourth “alien” (the nickname given to the dominant four riders of Rossi, Lorenzo, Pedrosa and Stoner) had a mediocre race by his standards, but he avoided crashing as he’s done twice this year and squeezed his Ducati past the customer Hondas of Marco Melandri and Randy de Puniet on the last lap to gather fourth.

Lorenzo now has 90 points at the top of the Championship, with Pedrosa second with 65. The absent Rossi is still third with 61, and Dovizioso’s podium took him to 58 in fourth.

The next Moto GP meeting is at Silverstone in the U.K. next weekend (June 20). It’s the first time in more than a decade that the fearsomely fast track has hosted a Moto GP and the riders are definitely looking forward to it as a great change from the modern “point and shoot” circuits with their multitude of slow corners.

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