McLean races to his first Gold Cup win at Mount
Adam McLean won the 70th Steve Henshaw Gold Cup race at Oliver’s Mount for the first time on Sunday after a six-lap sprint.
Wet weather in the afternoon resulted in the race being held back until shortly before 5.15pm and it was Ulsterman McLean who overcame the tricky conditions on his way to victory on his Yamaha R6.
DaveyT odd, who had dominated all four Super sport race son his Milenco by Padgett’ s Honda prior to the Gold Cup showpiece, led from pole on the opening lap before McLean took over.
The Tobermore man had pulled a gap of 2.5s over Todd after three laps, with Jim Hind third on his Yamaha ahead of Derek Sheils on the Greenhall Racing Kawasaki ZXR750.
After four laps McLean’s lead was up to 4.9s from Todd, who now had Hind snap ping at his heels, while Sheils was on his own in fourth ahead of Tom Weeden.
Hind passed Todd for second place on lap four but McLean was in total control by seven seconds going onto the penultimate lap.
He went on to close out victory by 8.4s from Hind, with Todd having to settle for the final spot on the rostrum, seven seconds further back. Sheils came home in fourth followed by Weeden and Lewis Arrowsmith.
McLean also bagged a hattrick in the Supertwin class on a Ryan Farquhar-prepared Kawasaki.
Todd had been a red-hot favourite for Gold Cup honours after winning all four Supersport races comfortably on Clive Padgett’s CBR6000RR Honda, continuing his stellar form this year.
Todd opened his account on Saturday when he beat McLean by 9.3s, with Hind in third.
In race two, Todd’s winning margin was 7.6s over McLean.
On Sunday, he sealed a hattrick, beating McLean by six seconds.
In a wet fourth race, Todd again had the upper hand, taking the win by four seconds from McLean.
Greenall Kawasaki riders Derek Sheils and Rob Hodson clinched a win apiece in Saturday’s Classic Superbike races, Sheils sealing a treble after winning both race son Sunday.
Rising prospect Hind (Yamaha) was a triple winner in the Lightweight 250 cc class.
In the Sidecars, Lee Crawford and Jake Lowther (LCR Suzuki) won all four races, while 12-time Isle of Man TT winners Ben and Tom Birchall (LCR Honda) finishing as the runners-up three times.