Isle of Man TT – Round up


The sun has now set on what was an eventful, and somewhat stressful 2017 Isle of Man TT fortnight. The weather played a significant part as is quite often the case, and the disruption to practise week certainly caused some problems for most teams in race week.

It was down to James Hillier and Dean Harrison to represent Kawasaki at the front of the field, and across the Supersport, Superstock and Superbike classes, both riders achieved some fantastic results. With the weather stopping the first Superbike race taking place on Saturday, it was moved along to Sunday when the sun shone down on the 37 ¾ mile Mountain course. Hillier was on fire in this race and if it wasn't for a faulty fuel pump in his pitstop, a win could have certainly been on the cards. Losing 16 seconds in the stop, he finished the race only 15 seconds off the race win in Fourth. Harrison meanwhile rode a fantastic race to take the final podium position in Third – a great set of results for the new Ninja ZX-10RR.

Monday's scheduled Superstock race was also put back a day due to weather meaning it ran on Tuesday. What is quite often our best race of the week, this year wasn't to be as Hillier had to pull in at Glen Helen on Lap 1 with a faulty front brake, and Harrison struggled to keep on the pace of the front guys, eventually finishing in 5th.

There are normally two Supersport races at the IOM TT, however again due to the inclement weather, only one race ran this year. Hillier took his Ninja ZX-6R to an awesome 2nd place finish in what is notoriously the class he struggles in, so a great result for him and the JG Speedfit Kawasaki team. Harrison unfortunately retired from the race.

The Lightweight Race is always one to watch for Kawasaki fans, as many riders choose to use the 650cc Kawasaki offering. In what was a very closely fought and highly entertaining race, we ended up 2nd and 3rd in the race with Martin Jessop on his all new Ninja 650 and Peter Hickman, who was riding Ryan Farquhar's ER-6 machine.

The last race of the week is always the most anticipated, the Senior TT. Hillier begun the race with what turned out to be a faulty rear shock, but he was able to change this after lap 2 when the race was red flagged due to a crash on the Mountain involving Ian Hutchinson. He then still struggled to find his rhythm and had to settle for Fourth, whilst Dean Harrison rode superbly to take a fine 3rd position.

Whilst we all now return to the Mainland and concentrate our efforts towards the next round of the British Superbike Championship, we take some time to reflect on a great two weeks of racing. We would also like to extend our deepest sympathies to the families of the riders who lost their lives.

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