TWO riders are inseparable in the standings after the opening two rounds of the Isle of Man Centre ACU road race championship.

In a near-repeat of 2025, Rory Parker and defending champion Jamie Cringle are locked together on the same tally of points after two wins and two second places apiece on similar 1000cc Honda Fireblades.

Parker won both Centre rounds at the first meeting of the season at a damp Jurby in late March, but Cringle turned it around to narrowly hold off the Ramsey man on Sunday in somewhat windy conditions on the clockwise version of the same 1.7-mile track, when the margins between the two were even slimmer.

Cringle appeared to be quicker out of the traps at the start of each race, but Parker fought back determinedly and both eight-lap races went to the, wire with Parker briefly grabbing the lead mid-race.

In the first instance, Parker ran up the inside of his rival on the brakes into Nan’s at the southern end of the circuit - Cringle dropping both feet off the rests as he struggled to slow down for the right-hander onto the main runway.

The latter snatched the lead back in a heated battle, leaving Parker to attempt a last-chance-saloon manoeuvre into the final corner at Hodge. He turned deeply to try and get better drive onto the finishing straight on both occasions, but each time he was thwarted.

Cringle was 0.181 of a second (less than two hundredths) ahead at the line in race one and even less (0.130) in race two - barely the width of a tyre.

The duo were more than 17s clear of the battle for third place in race one. Grant Thomson initially diced with Kyle Casement, but 17-year-old Sean Crone ultimately came between them to drop Casement to fifth on the 765 Triumph.

Thomson was less than 10s down on Parker in race two, with Casement holding off the impressive Crone for fourth by seven tenths of a second.

In their first meeting of the year, Ryan and Callum Crowe won the opening sidecar race by more than 34s from Darren Hope and Paul Bumfrey.

Their reduced lap speeds gave some impression to what effect the newly-enforced restrictor plates on the engine manifolds of sidecars will have on lap speeds at the TT. Their lap record for Jurby is 1min 08.112sec - Sunday’s best was 1:11.844 (a whole 3.7s down). Multiply that out over the full distance of the Mountain Course and it becomes blatantly clear that average speeds will be well down as previously suggested.

Visiting driver Craig Currie of Retford, Nottinghamshire sat out race one after his passenger, Justin Sharp, missed his hand-hold and rolled out of the chair at Hodge during practice. He was transferred to Noble’s Hospital for a check-up but was not found to be seriously injured.

As the pair had travelled to the island specifically to gain a signature for their Mountain Course licence, Callum Crowe sportingly passengered for Currie in race two. Initially second behind Stu Bainborough/Will Beal, they soon managed to overtake and go clear to win by 34.5s from Hope/Bumfrey.

Currie, in his first race on the course, was driving a Honda LCR similar to the Crowes, also backed by Kelproperties/Opul.