Race Three
The rain had cleared and the temperature was well into the 30s as the grid formed. Mcwilliams nailed his usual flying start while Morris again was swamped off the line by the second row. However, just three corners later, Morris was in the lead and it looked like another titanic scrap would develop. Mcwilliams slowed as he was about to start his second lap, looking over his shoulder to make sure he wasn’t about to get T-boned at turn one. He cruised around off the racing line and returned to the pits. A nut had fallen out of the gearchange linkage, his first DNF on a bike prepared by Roger Winfield in 50 rides since 2011. Morris now had a clear lead on his nearest rivals, Byrne, Richards, Rutter and Mcguinness. On lap four Morris struggled with a return of the third-gear issues that blighted his efforts at the Island Classic. Seconds later he was out of the race and the meeting with a broken gearbox. This elevated Byrne to the lead but as the race wound down he had a monumental job ahead of him to hold off a hard-charging Richards. Everyone was expecting a slipstream effort down the main straight but Byrne held him off, patting the tank as he took his first win on the Dermody Harris F1. “I knew he couldn’t be far away,” said Byrne later, “so I deliberately slowed mid-corner to cut his apex speed and make it hard for him to accelerate out.” Rutter was third with Mcguinness fourth. When the points were tallied, Byrne was just one point ahead of Richards. In theory Mcwilliams and Morris were out of the reckoning, but there were two races left and a lot could change if Byrne or Richards had a DNF.