Lee Johnston made up for his Supersport blunder as he drove to victory in the Supertwin category at the North West 200.
The majority of the race appeared to be going the way of Ulster Grand Prix winner Ivan Lintin, who stormed away off the line and pulled out a sizeable margin for the first three of the four-lap race.
Meanwhile, Johnston and Jamie Hamilton were locked in a close dice for the second spot on the podium, allowing the rest of the chasing pack to close up and create a five bike battle. Eventually Johnston and Keith Amor broke free and held the remaining podium positions.
The duo then worked on catching Lintin, with Amor signalling to Johnston to follow him down the fast straights to allow the slipstream to work its magic and to close in on the breakaway leader.
It appeared to work wonders as Lintin’s lead suddenly dropped, going from holding nearly a four-second gap to being just 0.6 seconds ahead going in to the final lap of the race. Amor couldn’t hold pace with the leading duo, however, falling further down the field while Johnston kept Lintin firmly in his sights.
Johnston seemed to have left it too late to make his move heading in to the coast road for the final time, but, using the slipstream again, he was able to close in on Lintin and force his move at the last possible opportunity, nabbing victory at the chicane. James Cowton rounded out the podium positions.
“I felt I had to do this after the first race,” said Johnston, who was involved in an opening lap incident at York corner in the opening race of the week. “The accident was my fault, and I had to pay back the team so a win’s the perfect way to do that. I was pushing hard on that final lap, but I’m happy now, it’s made up for making a fool of myself.”
“I maybe settled down too much,” added Lintin. “I might have missed a couple of gears or run wide here and there, it’s just one of them. It won’t happen on Saturday.”
