ULSTERMAN Michael Dunlop won the thrilling opening Supersport race at the 2013 TT on his PTR prepared Honda, giving the Louth based performance tuning outfit its first ever victory on the Isle of Man. With a margin of more than 10-seconds to Bruce Anstey and the rest of the field further behind, Dunlop controlled the race from the front. Michael said: “”The bike was mint and all the team put a lot of work in and I’m glad to get the first win for PTR around here. I wanted to get my head down and prove what I was made of.” There is a second Supersport race on Wednesday when Michael again will use his PTR prepared bike to go for victory as part of his own Michael Dunlop Team. PTR Honda’s Simon Buckmaster said: “Well done to Gary Ryan and all of Michael’s boys as well as the staff of PTR in helping to win this race, we are delighted to score our first TT victory, not long after our first NW200 victory. Michael is riding on top of his game and he has the right tools for the job; he’s going to be difficult to beat this week at the TT.” It means PTR has now won races at World Championship, British Championship, NW200 and Isle of Man TT events. More, from a press release issued by ACE Cafe T3 Racing: From disaster to dream: Ace Cafe T3 Racing come 13th in Supersport race 1 Only two days ago it seemed possible that they wouldn’t even race but the Ace Cafe T3 Racing team achieved a great result in the Isle of Man TT Supersport race 1 as David Johnson (DJ) brought the Ace Cafe Racer across the line in 13th. DJ completed the circuit in 01:15:47.346 with a speed of 119.479 mph. He qualified 16th and it seemed just in reach that the team, who had never raced a bike at the Isle of Man TT previously, might reach their goal of top 15. Instead they achieved an outstanding 13th fastest around the iconic track and a silver replica. It was a tough weekend for the team after the bike stopped on track on Saturday and it seemed like the Ace Cafe Racer might not even get its chance to race. When the team got the bike back later that evening it appeared to be a possible electrical or fueling fault with the engine. It seemed the supersport engine, which had only been put in the night before, wouldn’t be repaired in time so the team had no choice but to swap it for one of the stock engines they had been running in practice earlier in the week. Despite all the issues the Ace Cafe Racer made it 13th fastest out of 61 entrants around the circuit. Team principal, Tony Scott, predicted that they had a bike capable of a top 15 result and was impressed with what the team had achieved. He told us: “We were running a completely standard engine, the same as the Triumph Triple Challenge boys run, and the top nine riders are all the big names like Dunlop and Guy Martin, so we’re only three outside the big boys.” Team manager Dave Harris said the team were thrilled with the result and are aiming to only improve in the next race. Despite the success there are still issues with the bike, Harris explained: “The only thing we need to do to the bike now is make the tank take a little bit more fuel because we ran out as we crossed the finish line!” We now have to wait and see if the team can do it all again. The next TT Supersport race will take place at midday on Wednesday 5th June. Watch out for the Ace Cafe Racer and DJ on track. For more information regarding the Ace Cafe T3 Racing team visit www.t3-racing.co.uk, www.ace-cafe-london.com or find T3 Racing on Facebook. More, from a press release issued by SMT Racing: Mixed fortunes on Monday for Stewart and SMT Racing Dan Stewart and the SMT Racing team had a mixed day of racing at the Isle of Man TT Races on Monday with the Cumbrian rider having a superb ride in the morning’s Supersport 600cc race but retiring from the Superstock race later in the day. Ninth place and a new personal best lap on the 600cc Honda was a superb result but handling problems meant he had little option other than to retire from the big capacity race. With perfect conditions all around the Mountain Course, Dan was able to get underway exactly on time in the morning’s Supersport 600cc race and with a superb opening lap of 122.754mph, he slotted into a strong tenth place. It would prove to be quite a lonely ride for Dan as the only rider he saw during the race was eventual third place rider William Dunlop, who started ten seconds behind him, but an even better second lap, a new personal best of 122.788mph maintained his tenth place position. With Gary Johnson retiring on the final lap, Dan was moved up the order to ninth and here was where he finished for one of his finest Supersport TT rides. At 2pm, the 4-lap Superstock race got underway but as early as Glen Helen on the opening lap, it was clear all was not well as Dan found himself back in 18th place. Sure enough, he failed to appear in the top 12 at any of the timing points and with an opening lap of 120.166mph, he was back in 32nd place and pulled in the pits to retire. With a lack of practice time on the bike, the set-up wasn’t quite right for Dan to post his usual fast laps and run inside the top ten so he made the wise decision to pull in. Speaking afterwards, Dan said; “I could have done 120-122mph laps all day on the Stocker but I’m used to going a lot quicker than that so I didn’t want to cruise round for 20th place or something and it would have too dangerous to push any harder. With the wet weather in practice, we had to concentrate on the Superbike when we got some dry track time and we simply ran out of time to get the big Kawasaki dialled in. The morning’s race was the opposite though as the little Honda was brilliant and it was probably one of my best ever Supersport rides. I’m a lot bigger than some of the other riders so the 600cc class shouldn’t really suit me but I enjoy riding the bike and I lapped comfortably quicker than ever before so I was really happy with the result. Apart from William, I never saw anyone so I just did my own thing and apart from Gary, no-one dropped out so I had to work for the position all the way.” Team owner Robin Croft added; “Dan did all we thought he’d do in the 600cc race and it was a well deserved position so we were all very happy with it. A top ten finish at the TT is never to be sniffed at and Dan rode well and it all pretty much went like clockwork. There was always a bit of trepidation going into the Superstock race due to the lack of track time and the Kawasaki was a bit of an unknown quantity for all of us. The lack of set-up time hurt us and Dan was being pushed wide into turns he didn’t want to be pushed wide in so discretion over valour took over. It was a bit of a mixed day but we’re all looking forward to Wednesday which should be a good day for us with Dan going in the second Supersport race and Tim and Dan back out in the sidecar race so let’s hope the good weather remains.”