Monster Energy Supersport Race
Conor Cummins was the first off the line at 1830 on Monday night in the opening Supersport race of TT 2019 ahead of Dean Harrison and John McGuinness. The time delay between each rider ten-seconds and the race distance four laps of the 37.73 mile mountain course, thus 243 kilometres all up for the 50+ race starters.
James Hillier was the fastest man out of the blocks to take the early race lead ahead of Gary Johnson and Dean Harrison. Lee Johnston though then promoted himself up to second place through the split at Ballaugh Bridge.
Lee Johnston then took the lead late on the opening lap at Bungalow to demote Hillier to second place. Peter Hickman was the man on a charge though and was up to third place by Bungalow.
The first time past the start-finish line it was Johnston in the lead by two-seconds over Hillier with Hickman a further two-seconds back in third place.
Gary Johnson was in fourth ahead of Dean Harrison and Michael Dunlop. Conor Cummins seventh ahead of Jamie Coward and Davey Todd while Ian Hutchinson rounded out the top ten.
On lap two Lee Johnston continued to pull away from Hillier as Hickman started to close in on the second place man, the gap down to half-a-second by Ballaugh Bridge.
Late on the second lap though Johnston’s lead had been whittled down from four-seconds down to almost nothing by Ramsey. Presumably some sort of problem onboard the Ashcourt Group sponsored YZF-R6 or a mistake by Johnston allowing Hillier to get back in the race for the lead.
The other possibility was that there were a few drops of light rain at one part of the circuit that had seen Johnston button it off a little more than Hillier. That hypothesis was confirmed at the end of lap two when officials put out the chequered flag due to worsening conditions on the mountain. The race declared after two laps and Lee Johnston declared the winner ahead of James Hillier and Peter Hickman.
Despite the early culmination of that race Lee Johnston is still a very deserved race winner. He dominated that race from the get-go and the 30-year-old Northern Irishman was an emotional victor.
Monster Energy Supersport Race Results
- Lee Johnston
- James Hillier +3.641
- Peter Hickman +4.967
- Dean Harrison +17.971
- Michael Dunlop +21.125
- Conor Cummins +27.585
- Gary Johnson +29.088
- Jamie Coward +36.918
- Davey Todd +58.691
- Ian Hutchinson +66.796
Lee Johnston
James Hillier +3.641
Peter Hickman +4.967
Source: MCNews.com.au