James Hillier opened his 2015 Isle of Man TT account in superb fashion on Sunday afternoon when he took a brilliant third on the Quattro Plant Muc-Off Kawasaki in the 6-lap Superbike TT race. It was his first TT podium in the Superbike class and fourth in total.
A difficult practice week for everyone in the paddock meant many of the riders came into the race a little bit behind where they wanted to be and James’ best lap had been 126.444mph, not slow by any means but not where he wanted to be.
However, he flew out of the traps when the race got underway just after 2pm and, after slotting into third place at Glen Helen, he took over the lead as the riders swept through Ramsey in the north of the island. At the end of the lap, he’d been pushed back to third again but his speed of 130.709mph was his fastest ever from a standing start and meant he was just 1.9s behind new race leader Ian Hutchinson.
Half way round lap two, James had caught 21-times TT winner John McGuinness who had started ten seconds in front of him, and as they made their first pit stop at the end of lap two, James was in fourth, just 0.7s behind an improving Michael Dunlop.
Positions remained the same for the next few laps with James, McGuinness, Dunlop and Anstey circulating in close formation on the road. However, whilst Bruce Anstey went on to take the win from Hutchinson, Dunlop crashed out on the final lap just a mile from the finish and this meant James was promoted back up to third, 13 seconds clear of McGuinness.
James Hillier: “With John starting ahead of me, my plan was always to try and chase him down and I couldn’t have been happier with my opening lap. I got a glimpse of him in a few places and tried to close him down and I eventually caught him on the second lap. I knew I’d be fairly close to the podium if I could do that but Bruce, Hutchy and Michael were lapping just that little bit quicker. There were a few rain showers on the west part of the course as well and I had a pheasant come out in front of me in Kirk Michael so that unsettled me a bit.”
“After the 2nd pit stop, John came by me again and I could see he was going hard so I made sure I kept him in my sight. Bruce and Michael caught and passed us both and doing a bit of high-speed maths told me I was probably going to finish in fourth, which would still have been a good result. As it was, Michael had a coming together with a slower rider and I brought the bike home for third. I feel about 20 years older now and my knees are killing me but it’s a good start to the week. It was an amazing job by the team and a massive effort whilst the pit stops were superb.”
Pete Extance, Team Owner: “It’s been an amazing start to the week and it hasn’t sunk in yet. James was building his pace during practice week but to go from a 126.4 to a 130.7 lap out of the blocks was incredible. The pit stops were faultless and the fastest on each occasion whilst James rode a fantastic race throughout. Getting third place was a little bit fortuitous with Michael going out but James was in the hunt throughout and it’s thoroughly deserved by the whole team. Thank you to everyone at Quattro Plant, Muc-Off, Bournemouth Kawasaki and, of course, all our sponsors.”
James is back in action on Monday in the 4-lap Superstock and Supersport races.
Picture by Tim Keeton – Impact Images Photography
