Bruce Anstey won the 2016 SES TT Zero after his Mugen teammate and last year’s winner, John McGuinness suffered technical issues. Meanwhile, William Dunlop finished second on the Victory RR electric prototype.
McGuinness took the early lead but began to slow down as he approached the Sulby Straight. It took a while to restart his Mugen Shinden Go, leaving Anstey and Dunlop to battle for the lead. Dunlop trailed Anstey by seven seconds through Glen Helen but trimmed the gap to five seconds at Ramsey.
Anstey then began to pull away, however, finishing the 37.74-mile course with a time of 19:07.043, averaging a speed of 118.416 mph. Though it was enough for the win, it was a tad slower than his 118.857 mph lap last year and McGuinness’ record of 119.279 mph.
Dunlop finished 25.5 seconds behind Anstey, averaging a speed of 115.844 mph on the Victory RR. This represented an improvement on the 111.620 mph average lap set last year by Lee Johnston on Victory’s previous electric sportbike. Dunlop was supposed to race for Victory last year but had to withdraw with an injury. But having practiced on last year’s machine, Dunlop said he could notice the improvements.
“I could really feel the difference in the Victory RR this year – it’s a massive step forward,” says Dunlop. “The bike has a really, really good motor and massive respect to the Victory Racing boys for putting such a good bike together.”
Also impressive was third-place finisher Daley Mathison on a racebike produced by the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Nottingham. Mathison finished with a time of 22:39.864, placing ahead of McGuinness and just falling short of the 100 mph mark.
