Victory for John McGuinness at Isle of Man TT races

The Morecambe motorbike ace triumphed in the one-lap SES TT Zero Challenge on Wednesday morning.

McGuinness clocked a speed of 119.279mph around the island route and it proved too much for his rivals.

The 43-year-old ‘Morecambe Missile’ now moves to within four wins of Joey Dunlop, who leads the all-time TT win list.

McGuinness broke his own SES TT Zero record with his teammate Bruce Anstey again following him home, as he did last year.

John was first away from the line but by Glen Helen, Anstey had actually moved into the lead on timing, albeit with only a second separating the Mugen pair who had already established a 17 second lead over third placed Lee Johnston with his Victory Parker Racing teammate Guy Martin in fourth a further nine seconds back.

Martin was a late replacement for William Dunlop who was injured earlier in the week during qualifying.

McGuinness had moved into the lead by the next timing point at Ballaugh Bridge with a lead of over two seconds from Anstey with the Team Mugen pair establishing a healthy lead at the front of the field.

Johnston and Martin continued their challenge for the final podium spot with the Northern Ireleand rider establishing a lead of over 10 seconds from Martin at Ballaugh.

Robert Wilson consolidated fifth place for Belgium’s team Sarolea Racing while James Cowton (Brunel University) and Michael Sweeney (University of Nottingham) were going head to head in sixth and seventh for the honour of finishing the first university.

At the front of the field McGuinness was being made to work for the race win by Anstey with the gap closing to less than three seconds but the Morecambe Missile held on to win with a new lap record of 119.279mph (18:58.743) from Anstey (118.857/19:02.785) with Lee Johnston taking third for Victory/Parker Racing with 111.620mph - 20:16.881. Guy Martin (109.717/ 20:37.987), Robert Wilson (106.510/21:15.256) completed the top five with Michael Sweeney (73.156/30:56.695) taking the University honours for Nottingham.

Within an hour, McGuinness was in action again in the Monster Energy Supersport 2 but had to settle for eighth place.

The motorbike ace has further races later this week as the TTs come to a close.