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TT 2011: Final Lap Failure Hands Holden And Winkle First TT Win

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John Holden and Andy Winkle claimed their first Isle of Man TT race after long time leaders Klaus Klaffenbock and Daniel Sayle hit problems on the last lap.

The Austrian/Manx pairing took a comfortable win in the first Sidecar race on Saturday and looked set to do the double after pulling out a 3.5second lead on the opening lap. That would increase to nearly 17 seconds after a 114.672mph second lap.

Disaster would strike though on the third and final lap as a broken water hose clip caused them to slow down significantly, dropping them all the way down to sixth, their last tour coming at 103.953mph.

Holden and Winkle therefore took a fortunate, but no less popular, victory after finishing runners-up on five previous occasions, while Conrad Harrison and Mike Aylott came home three quarters of a minute behind in second to claim their second podium in as many races at this year's TT.

The race for the final podium spot would come to a nail biting finish as Tony Elmer and Darren Marshall saw off the challenge of Tim Reeves and Gregory Cluze by just 0.81seconds, achieving their first ever TT podium in the process.

Former FIM World Sidecar champions Ben and Tom Birchall finished fifth to surpass their best ever result at the event while Klaffenbock and Sayle came home a dejected sixth. Gary Bryan and Jamie Winn finished seventh ahead of Douglas Wright and Martin Hull who picked up the final silver replica in eighth.

Rob Handcock and Ken Edwards were ninth for RJ Roadracing.com while Carl Fenwick and Mark Sayers were once again the best of the newcomers, coming home in tenth.

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