After the TT: At the Billown Circuit Races

In keeping with yearly tradition, the close of the Isle of Man TT meeting was celebrated with the Post-TT races at the Billown circuit. Held on public roads in the south of the Island, the 4.2 mile circuit attracts a number of riders looking to round off their time on the Isle, as well as a number of short circuit and road riders solely attending this meeting.

In the first of the evening’s three races, the 125/400cc race was led from start to finish by local Chris Palmer on his diminutive 125cc machine. Adding to his ever-increasing tally of wins on the Billown circuit, Palmer eased to the win over Callum Collister and Mark Goodings, both on the larger 400cc four stroke machines.

In the 650cc class, a number of riders from the Lightweight TT race were competing for the honors, including Jamie Hamilton, Dean Harrison, Ivan Lintin, Mark Parrett, and James Cowton. With Hamilton taking the early pace on the KMR Kawasaki, he set about gapping his nearest rivals.

At the halfway point he was caught and passed by Harrison, who went on to finish the race with a gap of just under 6 seconds over Hamilton. In the process of catching Hamilton, Harrison set a new class record on his Kawasaki machine, in a time of 2:30.290 at an average of 101.803mph, continuing the impressive run of results he achieved at the TT.

Rounding out the day’s action was the 600cc class, with the highly-anticipated entry by William Dunlop on his Milwaukee Yamaha R6. Taking an early lead, Dunlop was only troubled by Dean Harrison on his Ian Bell Motorcycles R6, only for Harrison to pull in with a technical issue at the end of the first lap.

Despite a lonely ride to the chequered flag, Dunlop continued to set a blistering pace, which included an outright lap record on lap 6 of 8. With a lap time of 2:21.297 at an average speed of 108.283mph on this tight, undulating circuit there was nobody in the field who could attempt to compete with Dunlop’s perfect race.

The podium places were completed by Jamie Harrison and Jamie Coward, who had a race-long battle for second place, only to be separated by a tenth of a second across the line, with Hamilton taking the second step on the rostrum.

Richard Mushet is a British photographer who has been known to cover motorcycle racing in it’s many forms. You can view his site here, and follow his Facebook page for more frequent updates over here: MushetPhoto.