New Zealand’s Bruce Anstey has wrapped up his Isle of Man TT campaign with a strong third place in the six-lap Senior TT, the blue riband event on the TT calendar.

The race, traditionally the last event of the two week-long festival, was won by Anstey’s Honda team-mate John McGuiness, setting a new race record and claiming his 20th TT title. His win denied Michael Dunlop a record-equalling fifth win of the week, with Dunlop being pushed to second place, finishing six seconds behind McGuiness.

Anstey set a new lap record of 131.53 mph in the hectic last lap to claim third spot just 7.5 seconds behind Dunlop.

Anstey has finished this year’s TT campaign with one 2nd place and two 3rd place finishes on the podium, and two 5th place finishes to finish in third place in the Joey Dunlop Trophy behind Dunlop and McGuinness.

After the initial race was red flagged due to an incident at Bray Hill involving rider Jonathan Howarth, in which 10 spectators were injured, the race got underway at 4.30pm and the first few laps were nothing short of superb as the gaps between the leading riders were minimal. It was Gary Johnson who grabbed the lead at Glen Helen by 0.5s from William Dunlop with Michael Dunlop just 0.05s further back. Michael Rutter slotted into fourth as McGuinness found himself down in fifth.

It was all change at Ramsey though as Michael Dunlop hit the front for the first time, Johnson now second and McGuinness third. At the end of the lap, the order was still with the first five riders all over 130mph and only seven seconds between them, Dunlop leading from McGuinness, Johnson, Rutter and Guy Martin.

McGuinness began to make his move on the second lap and, after edging ahead by just five hundredths of a second at Ballaugh, he completed his second lap at 131.272mph to open up a 2.4s lead. Dunlop was 4.8s ahead of Martin with New Zealander Anstey up to fourth and ahead of Rutter as Johnson was forced to retire with a broken foot assembly.

Another slick pit stop by McGuinness’ Honda TT Legends crew saw him leave the pits with a bigger lead but by Glen Helen the gap was down to half a second although McGuinness had double this by Ramsey. It was nip and tuck all the way and at half race distance there was two seconds between the duo, Anstey in third ahead of Martin and Lightweight TT race winner James Hillier, who had relegated Rutter to sixth.

On the fourth lap, McGuiness appeared to have broken Dunlop slightly and, for the first time, his lead increased the whole way round. Leading on the road with Hillier right in his wheeltracks, the pair lapped at over 131mph as they came into their second pit stop and whilst it allowed McGuinness to go seven seconds clear of Dunlop, it also allowed Hillier to not only move up to fourth but also close up on Anstey.

Fifth time around and McGuinness’ lead crept up to the ten second mark, Hillier continued to have a great education behind the current King of the Mountain whilst the thousands of fans around the track were also being treated to an on-track duel between Anstey and Donald.

McGuinness and Dunlop looked safe in third but third place was anyone’s and as the riders headed into their sixth and final lap, Hillier had nosed ahead albeit by the tiny margin of 0.16s!

The final lap saw the leading four riders all lap in excess of 131mph, Hillier and Anstey both setting personal best laps, but it was McGuinness who was celebrating the most as he took his 20th TT win, and his 41st podium, by 10.1s. Dunlop ended his phenomenal week with a second place and, in a thrilling last lap, Anstey set the fastest lap of the race, 131.531mph, to get the better of Hillier for third.

Martin took fifth with Rutter in sixth, the Midlands rider delighted with his first 130mph+ laps. William Dunlop took seventh from Dean Harrison and Dan Stewart with Australian David Johnson securing his best TT result in tenth.

Lee Johnston was the best of the privateers in 11th and that allowed him to take that particular Championship by 10 points from Dan Kneen, who took 12th in the race.

The race was delayed by nearly four hours following the incident on Bray Hill. The race organisers issued the following statement:

“ACU Events Ltd can confirm that 10 spectators were injured during an incident in the Senior TT Race. The rider Jonathan Howarth sustained a minor fracture. The race was red flagged and emergency services were immediately in attendance at the scene.

“The 10 spectators and the rider were taken to hospital with injuries ranging from slight to serious but not life-threatening. Four of the spectators have been discharged, five of the injured have been kept in hospital and one remains under observation in the emergency department.”

Information from TT event PR, with additional words by BikesportNZ.com’s Ray Whitham