Wednesday’s second race for the day saw the small bikes of the Bennetts Lightweight TT take to the Mountain Course for the 2017 Isle of Man TT.
The four-lap race saw Michael Rutter finish on the top step of the podium, giving Italian marque Paton its first manufacturer win ever at the Isle of Man TT. In the process of that victory (Rutter’s fifth total), Rutter set a new Lightweight TT record, posting a 118.645 mph lap.
Rutter lead the entire race, from the starter’s flag to the checkered flag, with Martin Jessopp finishing second, and Peter Hickman finishing third.
Michael Dunlop had a new engine flown in by private jet, and was up till gone 4am on the morning of the race fitting the engine.
Ivan Lintin, the winner of the Lighweight TT, was spectacular over Ballaugh Bridge.
William Dunlop was 2nd in the TT Zero on the Victory.
Last to go on Wednesday for the Isle of Man TT, the Bennetts Lightweight TT features “super twin” four-stroke machines, of up to 650cc in displacement.
The weapon of choice in the class has been the Kawasaki Ninja 650, but that is slowly changing. Gary Johnson, for instance, has made a good show of things with the Chinese CF Moto.
Though any rider can compete in the Lightweight TT category, the class is seen by many as a stepping stone onto a supersport or bigger bike. As such, many of the TT’s upcoming stars feature in the Lightweight TT.
A four-lap race this year, the Lightweight TT in the past has been a three-lap contest, which brought a bit of strategy into play on when to take a pit stop. Now four laps, that intrigue has been removed, but given riders a more difficult contest on machines not designed for racing.
For the final day of racing at the 2015 Isle of Man TT, and I headed to the north of the Island, as I had a brief to photograph the Lightweight race from the Ginger Hall section in Sulby. Just after the Sulby Straight, the Ginger Hall is very popular with fans, mainly due to the pub that gives the section its name.
After the Lightweight race, I drove the few miles to Ramsey and to the spectacular Milntown jump. From there, it was a brief stop at Parliament Square in the center of Ramsey before driving back to the Grandstand for the podium celebrations.
Above: John McGuinness plants a kiss on the Senior TT trophy.
The final day of racing at the Isle of Man TT is usually set by two extremes: the “beginner class” Lightweight TT and the blue-ribbon event, the Senior TT.
The rules for the Bennetts Lightweight TT are pretty simple, bikes with two-cylinders, no bigger than 650cc, and the riders must perform at least one pit stop during the three-lap race.
This means that pit stop strategy is king for the Lightweight riders, and the shuffling of positions adds a bit of drama to the usually tight racing already found on the course.
The man to beat in the Lightweight TT class is Ryan Farquhar, one of the top privateer riders at the TT (if not, the top privateer). Farquhar is responsible for tuning and building many of the top Kawasaki race bikes on the Lightweight TT grid as well, though other brands and builders have started to find competitiveness in the class.
Not to spoil the results for the Senior TT, but Friday would see records drop at the Isle of Man, and we start that trend off first in the Bennetts Lightweight TT.