Josh Brookes won his first Classic TT race over the Snaefell Mountain Course when he rode the Winfield Paton to victory in the Bennetts Senior.

The popular Australian had built up a lead of 47 seconds over Norton-mounted Jamie Coward by three-quarter distance. But a slower-than-anticipated stop for fuel at the end of lap three cost him the race lead and a little bit more.

Coward, on a no-stop four-lap strategy with the less-thirsty British single was lapping quicker than anyone had ever gone over the course on a machine of that ilk.

At Glen Helen on the final circuit, Brookes had muscled his way back into the lead, but it was by a mere 0.2 of a second.

At Ballaugh, he had really upped the pace and, coupled with Coward’s Norton suffering a misfire, the lead had gone out to four seconds.

That was 14.3 at Ramsey Hairpin and 24.4s at the Bungalow, eventually crossing the line with a winning margin of 34 seconds.

‘I knew things were tight after the fuel stop, so I had nothing to lose and gave it everything on the final lap,’ admitted former British Superbike champion Brookes.

Coward was pleased with his second runner-up spot in the race, but was aware that he could not match the pace of the Paton twin on the final lap.

William Dunlop and Maria Cotello had a good scrap for third place, eventually going to Dunlop on the Davies Motorsport Honda by a margin of 12 seconds, albeit 1min 28sec down on Coward.

RAF man Michael Russell was seventh on the Izzard Racing Norton, first of the privateers.

Full report in Tuesday’s Examiner.