Rob Hodson won the inaugural Junior 600 Classic TT race in near-perfect conditions on Monday evening.

The Wigan rider set the fastest lap of the race of 120.276mph as he brought the Neil Orford Haulage Yamaha home 24.32 seconds ahead of Barry Furber (Robinson Timber Yamaha).

Shropshire man Furber ran low on fuel towards the end of the second and final lap but was able to hold off Laxey’s Joe Yeardsley (Tony Leach Joinery Yamaha) by four 10ths of a second. Yeardsley, fastest in qualifying, was also above 120mph on the last lap.

Hodson said after the race he’d be careful not to push the bike too hard: ‘The front suspension was a bit soft, but if we’d needed to we could have pushed a touch harder.

‘You’ve got to look after these older bikes a little bit.’

He also paid tribute to runner-up Furber who leant his team an engine so that could compete. He added: ‘We have had a lot of bad luck all through qualifying despite being able to make positive suspension and gearing changes we retired a few times but knew given some luck we could be at the sharp end in the race.

‘With thanks to Baz Furber and Martin Robinson loaning us an engine, the support of Robin Croft of SMT Racing and the hard work of Paul Ashton and Neil Orford and the rest of our team we were able to make it onto the grid for today’s race. I wanted nothing less than a win for everyone involved and I was lucky enough to land it and I couldn’t be prouder!’

Furber admitted he was lucky to get to the finish: ‘I heard the bike backfire a little bit going into Signpost, and I thought: “There’s no fuel in this thing”.

‘I got to Governor’s Dip and it was gone completely, so I just shook it and wobbled it and held it upright to get me over the line.

‘We’ve struggled with a bit with fuel problems all week and we’d thought we’d sorted it and had plenty in the bank, but maybe I was riding a bit hard!’

Laxey's Joe Yeardsley wheelies through St Ninian's crossroads aboard his Tony Leach Joinery Yamaha R6 on his way to finishing a fine third in Monday evening's Junior 600 Classic TT (Photo: Baylon McCaughey)
Laxey's Joe Yeardsley wheelies through St Ninian's crossroads aboard his Tony Leach Joinery Yamaha R6 on his way to finishing a fine third in Monday evening's Junior 600 Classic TT (Photo: Baylon McCaughey) (Baylon McCaughey)

Manxman Yeardsley acknowledged he was too slow off the start: ‘Sometimes being number one on the road goes against you as you’ve got no-one to chase.

‘I was a bit slow getting going, but I really enjoyed that. Massive thanks to Tony for building the bike this year. Wasn’t the start to the meeting we wanted blowing the race engine, meaning we had to put a stock one out of a road bike into it.

‘I’ve road the wheels off it and I’m made up to do a 120mph lap - I couldn’t ask for any more from the bike.’

Michael Russell had been in contention for a podium for much of the two-lap race on the Complete Plumbing Solutions Yamaha, but ultimately finished 11.519 seconds down on Yeardsley.

Fifth and sixth were Ryan Whitehall and Tom Robinson, while Douglas’ Marcus Simpson was the first non-Yamaha home in seventh on the Duckshaw Racing Kawasaki ZXR600.

Julian Cregniot was next in eighth, with Simpson’s fellow Manxman Paul Cassidy less than a second back on corrected time in ninth.

TT regular Tom Weeden rounded out the top 10 on the Suzuki GSXR600.

Ramsey’s Luke Blevins slotted into 14th just ahead of Douglas’ Darran Creer on a similar Honda CBR600 in 17th.

Douglas’ Marcus Simpson finished in seventh place aboard his Duckshaw Racing Kawasaki ZXR600 (Photo: Callum Staley/CJS Photography)
Douglas’ Marcus Simpson finished in seventh place aboard his Duckshaw Racing Kawasaki ZXR600 (Photo: Callum Staley/CJS Photography) (Callum Staley/CJS Photography)