Superbike TT, Valiant effort from RAF Reserves

Andrews running strong before retiring on last lap

The Royal Air Force Reserves Honda team, run by Lee Hardy Racing, has considered its first ever Isle of Man TT race a success, despite Simon Andrews retiring from 13th place in the Superbike race close to the end of the final lap after running out of fuel.

The teams Honda Fireblade is essentially the Superstock machine Andrews rides in the National Superstock championship and in todays Superstock TT race, so will always be outclassed in terms of power, electronics, suspension and weight of the bikes in the premier class. But nobody told Andrews that.

Depsite the Evesham racers last TT in 2012 ending in an horrific accident, the 28-year old had been building speed throughout practice week and was hoping for a top-15 placing in the talent-deep field.

Leaving at position 17, Andrews finished the first lap in 22nd, taking a couple of laps to find his rhythm before setting some impressive times with a best of lap with an average speed of 124.489mph. On lap 6 he was sitting in 13th with a margin of 30 seconds over 14th when the bike started spluttering at the Creg-ny-Baa, running out at The Nook, in the penultimate section and so close to the finish after almost two hours of racing.

Simon Andrews said: Im pretty pleased with how the race went, but not happy we didnt finish it! Everyone is struggling with fuel loads and where I pulled up at The Nook, Gary Johnsons bike was already there.

But the pit stops went well, my aim was for a top 15, so the race almost went as planned. On a Superstock machine running in the Superbike class theres only so much we can do as we lose out on a lot of the long straights.

We need a bit more speed on the stocker in terms of laps, but I felt comfortable and fast in the race so overall we need to raise the game for the Supertstock race today. A few chassis tweaks and hammering out the fuel tank is all we can do!

Team manager, Lee Hardy, said: I feel over the moon, to be honest. Quite a weird feeling, we were elated to see Simon running 13th. My goal was to be in top 20, which would have been like a race win.

The worst feeling was the entire team all standing on the straight waiting for Simon to arrive, but when he didnt you have that awful feeling. News can come through slowly at the TT and we knew hed gone through the last but one sector. So in a way we were relieved he ran out of fuel!

The team worked really well, we did our first ever pit stops and Simon was pleased with those. The military precision seems to be helping with our preparation and approach - check, double check and check again! Ahead of todays race weve had Adrian Gorst helping us with the fuelling and we are trying to improve the second map that leans the bike right off so we can finish the race on the fuel load.

RESULTS: Dainese Superbike TT1. Michael Dunlop 2. Cameron Donald 3. John McGuinness DNF Simon Andrews

NEXT RACES:  Monday (today) Superstock Race. 2pm


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