Island Classic 2017 – International Challenge Race Two Report / Results / Points
By Trevor Hedge
Jeremy McWilliams was untouchable in race one, and Team UK were looking to strengthen their hold at the front of the International Challenge points table when race two got underway at 1615 this afternoon.
Alex Phillis again scored the holeshot but this time around he managed to keep McWilliams at bay for at least the first few corners, but eventually the Northern Irishman found his way through and started pulling away from Phillis, Byrne and Jed Metcher.
McWilliams was again quickly down to 1m37s, a 37.71 on his first flying lap to stretch his advantage out to 1.3-seconds by the end of lap two. That gap then grew to 2.3-seconds at half race distance as McWilliams lowered the benchmark further to 1m37.186.
Paul Byrne was in a strong third place but a 10-second jump-start penalty would shuffle him back down the order in the final results.
Peter Hickman was a man on a charge, the only rider other than McWilliams to dip into 1m37s, a 37.716 for the 29-year-old. Lap four saw Hickman move up to third place past Giles, Byrne and Metcher to stake his claim on a rostrum finish.
At the last lap board McWilliams had four-seconds on Alex Phillis who was pushed back to third place by Hickman into turn one. Glen Richards was drifting back through the field with some sort of problem.
Jed Metcher was finishing fast and slipped past Phillis to take third place and the final step on the podium by a whisker.
52-year-old McWilliams made it two from two today in a dominant display from teammate Hickman, the pair pushing Team UK to an advantage in the International Challenge standings after a great performance.
Metcher third, Phillis fourth and while he finished fifth on the track, Paul Byrne would be demoted to 12th place after that jump-start penalty was applied.
Byrne’s demotion promoted Giles through to fifth place ahead of Chas Hern, placing Australians 3rd through sixth which helped make things tight at the top in the International Challenge rankings with a modest 24-points separating Team UK and Team Australia, the standings 352 and 328 points respectively.
Team UK will be feeling pretty confident of making it three-in-a-row on current form… Two more races tomorrow to decide it…
Island Classic 2017 – International Challenge Race Two Results
- Jeremy McWilliams
- Peter Hickman +3.25
- Jed Metcher +3.46
- Alex Phillis +3.49
- Shawn Giles +4.76
- Chas Hern +7.40
- Conor Cummins +8.80
- Derek Sheils +9.22
- Steve Martin +9.39
- John McGuinness +10.56
- James Hillier +11.39
- Paul Byrne +13.66
- Glen Richards +21.18
- David Johnson +22.08
- Craig Ditchburn +24.64
- Alex Pickett +27.32
- Pat Mooney +31.97
- Hilton Hincks +32.10
- Scott Webster +33.11
- Derek Brown +38.71
- Chris Campbell +39.88
- Damian Mackie +41.47
- Barrett Long +41.50
- Glenn Hindle +46.97
- Damien Kavney +48.56
Island Classic 2017 – International Challenge Team Points (Saturday – Two races still to go on Sunday)
- United Kingdom 352
- Australia 328
- Ireland 244
- New Zealand 179
- USA 170
Island Classic 2017 – International Challenge Ken Wootton Perpetual Trophy Points (Saturday – Two races still to go on Sunday)
- Jeremy McWilliams 80
- Peter Hickman 77
- Shawn Giles 75
- Jed Metcher 74
- Conor Cummins 71
- Chas Hern 70
- Derek Sheils 65
- Steve Martin 62
- John McGuinness 62
- Paul Byrne 62
- Glen Richards 62
- James Hillier 59
- Craig Ditchburn 54
- Pat Mooney 50
- Hilton Hincks 47
- Scott Webster 47
- Chris Campbell 43
- Derek Brown 42
- Damian Mackie 39
- Glenn Hindle 39
