ClassicRacer 73
Left: TheaftermathofPeteBoast’sfallinthe
lastlapoftheSuperbikerace.Thishappenedat
Castletowncorner.Petewasthankfullyperfectly
okayafterthetumble.TheKawasakididn’tget
awayquitesolightly...Below:AnthonyRedmondis quicktohis feet
andmakingsureothersseehimearly afterabig
momentonTheIsland.One of the mostdominant performances
of the meeting camefromJamie Coward
on the Mistral Kawasaki in the Post-Classic
Superbikerace.
TheHebden Bridgerider led by 5.8
seconds at the end of the first circuitfrom
TimPoole,who in turn waseight tenthsofa
second in frontofHose.
Pooleslowedtosixth place and retired
after twolaps, leaving Coward with a
comfortable 14.8s leadathalf-distanceover
Hose, withPeterBoast and Dennis Booth
closefor third.
Well in control,Coward went into the final
lap with aleadof17s, but it wasclosefor
ssseeecccooonnndddbbbeeetttwwweeeeeennnttthhheeennneeexxxtttttthhhrrreeeeee,wwwiiittthhhBBBoooaaasssttt
up tosecond at CrossFour Ways.Thelatter man,of Market Rasen, wasa
faller at the last corner and, although he was
unharmed, his ZXR750 caughtlight andwas
damaged by fire.
Coward’s margin of victory overHose was
16.821s,with Ballymenaman Boothanother
4.3s adrift on his 1100 Suzuki.
Course newcomerMichael Hand,from
Caistor in Lincolnshire, did well on his750
Yamahato finishfifthinfront of the Kawasakis
of James Ford and NealChampion.
It wasCoward’seighth Pre-TT Classic win,
equal with his father Paul’stally.
“It wasstill very greasyout there,soI
backedoff when thegap gotto17seconds,”
hhheeesssaaaiiiddd.
Booth agreed about thelackofadhesionand had seenBoast go down in frontofhim
at Castletown Corner. “It’stoo dryfor wets
now,”hesuggested.
Themouth-watering prospect ofTT
masters Dave Molyneuxand Dan Sayle on a
mid-1980sTZ750outfit up against the more
traditional ‘classic’ wastemperedslightly by
the conditions.
An open sidecarracewas introduced for
the firsttime this year and at one stage it
looked likeTim Reeves, Conrad Harrison
and Stuart Applegate wouldjoin‘Moly’ on
Japanese-engined machines,but this didnot
quitematerialise.
TheIresonYamaha wasalittleslowgetting
away,giving Vince Biggs and Vicky Cookea
flyingstart on their 1070ccBMW flat-twin.
RodBellas and DannyQuirk were again
closebehind on the 1200cc BLRImp.
Molyneux and Sayle had made it up to
third, but were almostsix seconds offthe
lead at quarter distance.
Greg Lambertand JulieCaniparetired their
Imponlap twoand Molyneux/Sayle were still
four seconds offthe lead at half distance.
They were up to secondaheadofBellas/
Quirk goingintothe final circuit,only0.8 of a
second down on Biggs/Cooke.
An insideovertakingmanoeuvre at Cross
Four Ways brieflyput the Manxcrewintothe
lead,but as theyexitedthe tightright-hander
the two-strokespun on adamp piece of road
and they struggled to get drive.
TheBMW had better top-end speed and
Biggsblastedthe big pushrodmotorinto
Church Bends, continuing to pile on the
coalsdownthe longstretch through Great
MeadowtoCastletown. He and Cookeheld
on overthe final sprinttothe line to win by
1.6seconds.
“TTThhhaaatttiiisssttthhheeefififirrrssstttaaannndddlllaaasssttttttiiimmmeeeIII’llllllbbbeeeaaatttDDDaaavvveee
Molyneux,” smiled WistowwomanCooke.068 PreTTclassic_SEP.indd 73 27/07/201713:06:19