Lee Johnston took his maiden Isle Of Man TT win in a shortened Supersport race onboard his Ashcourt Racing Yamaha R6.
It was a two-horse affair for the majority of the opening Supersport race, with Quattro Kawasaki rider James Hillier and Lee Johnston duking it out over the course of the race all whilst opening up a healthy four-second advantage over the Triumph 675 of 2019 Superbike TT winner Peter Hickman.
The race was cut short after the second lap, as deteriorating weather on the west side of the island made it unsafe to continue, giving Johnston his maiden win, 3.641 seconds ahead of James Hillier.
Hillier took an early lead, passing through Glen Helen 1.367 seconds ahead of Lee Johnston who had made a strong start to his Monster Energy Supersport race with Gary Johnson third, Dean Harrison fourth and Jamie Coward fifth. At Ballaugh, Hillier extended his lead over the ‘General Lee’ by three-tenths, whilst Hickman started to get up to speed, jumping up to fifth.
Johnston then cut the gap to just 0.648 seconds at Ramsey before taking the lead at the Bungalow. Hickman moved into third place, Johnson fourth and Harrison fifth.
As the riders passed the Grandstand to end the opening lap, Johnston’s lead was up to 1.989 seconds courtesy of a 126.03mph lap with Hickman two seconds further back.
Johnston started the second lap the strongest, opening the lead to a healthy 3.944 seconds. But Hillier clawed back three seconds in a phenomenal run to Ramsey, trailing Johnston once again by just 0.656 seconds.
At the Bungalow, Johnston had extended his lead once again to 1.887 seconds and extended it a further two seconds at the finish line.
Johnston took the win by 3.641 seconds over James Hillier with Peter Hickman taking his second podium of the day. Dean Harrison was fourth ahead of Michael Dunlop, who completed the top six. Connor Cummins was able to get the better of Gary Johnson towards the end of the race to secure sixth with Jamie Coward in eighth, Davey Todd in ninth and Ian Hutchinson completing the top ten.
