Thomas Maxwell and Michael Rees proved that good things come to those that wait as they took the honours in Tuesday lunchtime’s delayed Manx Grand Prix Newcomers race.

Originally scheduled for Monday teatime, the four-lap contest started 19 hours later after rain and poor visibility forced a rejig of yesterday’s Festival of Motorcycling schedule.

Irishman Maxwell claimed the honours in a dramatic A class that saw two early leaders retire.

Fastest qualifier Mike Browne initially set the pace but pulled his bike in at Sulby midway through the first lap.

Onchan’s Nathan Harrison then took the top of the corrected time charts, but his race didn’t last much longer as he was forced to retire his Suzuki GSX-R600 at Cronk Urleigh near Kirk Michael the following lap.

From that point Yamaha-mounted Maxwell took the lead, Scotsman Steven Haddow proving his closest challenger.

The latter was soon left ruing a pit-lane speeding penalty of 30-seconds which effectively ended his bid for victory.

Haddow pushed hard for the remaining two laps on his Kawasaki ZX-R6 but would eventually finish 12.842 seconds down on Maxwell. James Field finished in third more than a minute behind Haddow.

Aaron Shelton, Grant Gaskell and John Pilloud from Switzerland completed the top six.

The lead in the concurrently run B class also swapped hands several times, but between just two riders.

Welshman Rees, on his 650 Kawasaki, enjoyed a race-long battle with James Hind on his 250 Honda.

Rees finally broke free on the final lap winning by nearly 25 seconds from runner-up Hind.

Barry Sheehan completed the top three, a minute 13.731 seconds down on Hind.

Jack Fowler and the international duo of Daniel Fernandez (Colombia) and Yoshihiro Kishimoto (Japan) completed the top six.

Glen Vine’s James Smith was the only Manxman involved, but he was forced to retire at the pits.

Full report in Thursday’s Manx Independent.