It was a welcome return of classic racing motorcycles to Mona’s Isle at the Manx Grand Prix.
Lightweight Manx Grand Prix
Four months after breaking both ankles in a collision at the Cookstown 100, Mike Browne chalked up his first victory on the Snaefell Mountain Course in the Lightweight Manx Grand Prix.
The shortened-in-length Dunlop Lightweight race was a continuation of the Classic TT version, with the addition of three Moto3 machines. The top dozen or so riders were TT regulars, so it didn’t actually fit the true description of a Manx Grand Prix either. The racing was relatively close, even if numbers were perhaps not what had been hoped for.
Cork man Browne led at Glen Helen by four seconds from pre-race favourite Jim Hind, while an early retirement was Frenchman Lancelot Unissart after he slid off at Quarter Bridge. Hind’s TZ250 was clocked at 148mph on Sulby Straight and he was 0.7 of a second ahead of Browne at Ramsey, with Dom Herbertson at another 12s on the leading Honda.
Veteran campaigner, Ian Lougher was 4th and former leading Sidecar TT passenger Dan Sayle 5th, the Sulby man having taken four seconds out of Michael Dunlop on his home sector from Ballaugh to Ramsey. Such was Hind’s pace on Dennis Trollope’s Yamaha that he bettered the 250cc Lightweight MGP record with a standing start
