Peter Hickman (Briggs Equipment BMW) took a spectacular win at the 49th Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix in a race that was closer than the final margin of 6.2 seconds would make it appear.
Second place for Martin Jessopp (Riders Motorcycles BMW) was scant reward for his hard work and pace throughout the weekend. Convincingly fastest in qualifying and warm-up, he took a gamble on opening enough of an early advantage on a softer tyre to maintain his lead to the end of 12 laps, but by half-distance the dice had fallen in Hickman’s favour and Jessopp had no reply, though he was far enough ahead of the rest of the field that his second place was never under threat.
After a 12-lap battle, Michael Rutter (Penz13.com BMW) finished third, adding to his vast array of silverware earned at Macau but missing out on increasing his record 8-win tally by just under ten seconds – that was the margin between first and third places on an afternoon when a dozen riders all tried their hardest to get on the podium.
Said Hickman: “It feels absolutely fantastic! This is only my second time in
Macau. I’ve not been doing the road racing scene for very long, but my British Superbike championships have been pretty strong the last couple of years. It’s fantastic to be able to transfer between the two.
“We all knew from the qualifying and practices that Martin [Jessopp] was really strong, and the pace that he had compared to everyone else seemed too much, to be quite honest. I was on the Dunlop tyres and [Jessopp and Rutter] are on different, so we knew that we were going to be strong for the second half of the race, and I figured that Martin was going to pull away in the first five or six laps and then hopefully we’d come back to him. Martin put in such a fast lap. I thought, I just need to be clean, don’t make any mistakes and just be as fast as I can. As soon as I had a chance, I was close enough at
Lisboa and I passed him straight away. Fortunately the plan worked.”
Throughout the race Rutter was involved in a ferocious battle with a virtual who’s who of motorcycle road racing, swapping places with Gary Johnson on another of the Team Penzkofer bikes, with 2013 winner Ian Hutchinson (Paul Bird Kawasaki) occasionally intruding in his attempts to get on the third step of the podium. Meanwhile, Honda duo John McGuinness and Conor Cummins held a watching brief that was never more than fractions of a second behind as the race unfolded through an unbroken sequence of dramatic laps.
It was the seasoned McGuinness, the most successful road racer of his generation, who provided the final thrills, swooping past Gary Johnson on the wrong side of the tarmac at the endless left-hander of Dona Maria in a move worthy of a bid for victory, easily the most breathtaking moment in thirty minutes of exceptional racing.
Pos/Rider/Previous/Moves/Points
1 William Dunlop 1 No Change 1822
2 Ivan Lintin 2 No Change 1798
3 Dean Harrison 3 No Change 1716
4 James Cowton 4 No Change 1536
5 Derek McGee 5 No Change 1445
6 Lee Johnston 6 No Change 1247
7 Michael Dunlop 7 No Change 1076
8 Guy Martin 8 No Change 978
9 Ryan Farquhar 9 No Change 954
10 Seamus Elliott 10 No Change 931
11 Jamie Coward 11 No Change 909
12 Ian Hutchinson 12 No Change 810
13 Bruce Anstey 13 No Change 731
14 Michal Dokoupil 14 No Change 635
15 Derek Sheils 15 No Change 595
16 Dan Kneen 16 No Change 562
17 Paul Jordan 17 No Change 556
18 James Hillier 18 No Change 520
19 Sam Wilson 19 No Change 493
20 Neil Kernohan 20 No Change 482
21 Adam McLean 21 No Change 474
22 Peter Hickman 39 Up 17 468
23 Kevin Fitzpatrick 22 Down 1 451
24 Richard Ford 23 Down 1 432
25 John Walsh 24 Down 1 427
26 Rhys Hardisty 25 Down 1 424
27 Jamie Hamilton 26 Down 1 421
28 John McGuinness 37 Up 9 417
29 Paul Gartland 27 Down 2 412
30 Davy Morgan 28 Down 2 403
31 Billy Redmayne 29 Down 2 403
32 Brian Coomey 30 Down 2 402
33 Connor Behan 31 Down 2 398
34 Barry Davidson 32 Down 2 382
35 Freddie Stewart 33 Down 2 377
36 Andrew Dudgeon 34 Down 2 373
37 Daley Mathison 35 Down 2 372
38 Tommy Henry 36 Down 2 369
39 Daniel Hegarty 38 Down 1 365
40 Paul Robinson 40 No Change 361
41 Ed Manley 41 No Change 351
42 Mick Goodings 42 No Change 348
43 Peter Boast 43 No Change 344
44 Nick Anderson 44 No Change 342
45 Rob Hodson 45 No Change 329
46 Nigel Moore 46 No Change 328
47 Adrian Harrison 47 No Change 324
48 Alastair Seeley 48 No Change 320
49 Michael Rutter 58 Up 9 316
50 Conor Cummins 49 Down 1 313
Winner of the 49th Macau Motorycle Grand Prix moves up 17 places from 39th to 22nd in the 2015 Duke Road Race Rankings Championship, whilst fourth place man, John McGuinness also improves from 37th to 28th up nine places.
Likewise third place finisher Michael Rutter also advances nine positions from 58th to 49th, displacing 2007 Duke Rankings winner Conor Cummins to 50th spot.
The SunCity Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix brings the curtain down on the 24-round Duke Road Race Rankings Championship 2015.
