Bruce Anstey claimed his eighth Isle of Man TT victory in Monday's Supersport 1 race. The race was marred though by a tragic accident involving Derek Brien which brought out the red flag.
Brien, 34, from Co. Meath in Ireland suffered a high speed crash at Gorse Lea and sadly died as a result of his injuries. The cause of the accident will be investigated.
The race distance was shortened to three laps and when it got back underway, Cameron Donald led Michael Dunlop by just 0.1seconds with Anstey and Gary Johnson in touch in third and fourth.
A storming first lap, run at 125.852mph propelled Dunlop into the lead with a six second cushion over Donald and Johnson with Anstey in fourth but matters would soon change as the pit stops began.
The front two chose not to pit and Johnson was left with a 37 second lead over the rest of the field after Dunlop dropped out at Ballig Bridge. Once the race settled down, Donald was back up to second followed by Anstey and Keith Amor, riding despite suffering a dislocated shoulder during qualifying week.
The chasing pack had managed to take seven seconds out of Johnson's lead which caused the East Coast Construction rider to give up the lead once he had pitted. Once the riders came back through Glen Helen, Donald now had a four second lead over the Padgetts Motorcycles Honda of Anstey with Amor third, Martin fourth and Johnson now down to fifth,
The decisive moment came on the final lap as Donald's Honda expired at Kirk Michael handing the Kiwi rider a reasonably comfortable victory, ending up just over eight seconds clear of Amor's KBMG Racing Honda.
Guy Martin would take the final podium position was made to work hard for it in the closing stages, with Johnson recovering to finish just 1.18s behind the Relentless Suzuki rider. John McGuinness was also close behind but had to settle for fifth.
Local rider Dan Kneen finished a lonely sixth ahead of Ian Lougher, Ben Wylie and Ian Mackman while Daniel Stewart edged out Mark Buckley and James Hillier to take the final place in the top ten.
Despite finishing fifth, McGuinness leads the TT Championship by three points from Amor. Wylie was the highest placed Privateer but Mackman's second place moved him onto 45 points, 16 ahead of Mark Buckley.
