Moritz Klaus finishes in a highly respected 13th place; Thomas Altendorfer: “She said yes”

The results of the practice sessions suggested that the Supersport Manx Grand Prix class was set to produce an exciting race. Johnny Stewart and Lee Hara were separated by just 2.42 seconds on the timesheet. The rest of the field were well behind. But Stewart, who had comfortably won the Sportbike Manx Grand Prix just hours earlier, had other plans.

On his Ducati V2, he left no doubt from the very first metre of the 242.882-kilometre race that he had his sights set on a second victory of the day. After the first of four laps, his lead over Hara was already over 17 seconds. By the halfway point, he had extended his lead by a further seven seconds, and going into the final 60.725 kilometres, the Scot was already more than half a minute ahead.

Hara learnt the hard way that you can never rest on your laurels until the very last metre on the infamous Snaefell Mountain Course. Instead of securing what appeared to be a safe second place across the finish line, the Yamaha rider crashed in the Braddan Oak Tree section. According to information from race control, the Northern Irishman was taken to nearby Noble’s Hospital with leg injuries.

Second place therefore went to his compatriot Graham Mcaleese (Yamaha), ahead of the British Suzuki rider Eddy Wormald, who had not expected to finish on the podium at all.

Belgian rider Laurent Hoffmann, on his Yamaha, provided a surprise. Less than two weeks after his one-two finish in the European Road Racing Series at Horice, he finished the race in eighth place, having completed the final lap at an average speed of 119.612 miles per hour – a remarkable feat for a newcomer.

Topic of the week

Topic of the week: Aprilia comeback? The truth is: Aprilia never went away!

Four weeks ago, Aprilia headed into the summer break from Germany with a badly injured Marco Bezzecchi. The response came from the heart of British motor racing: ‘Together we are strong!’

Thomas Kuttruf

Read more

The German Moritz Klaus (Honda) put in a no less impressive performance on his Manx Grand Prix debut. Starting in 30th place, he gradually worked his way up the field to finish the race in 13th place. Following this result, there are high hopes for him in Sunday’s final Senior Manx Grand Prix.

Thomas Altendorfer überraschte seine Freundin mit Heiratsantrag

Foto: Thomas Altendorfer

The Austrian Thomas Altendorfer (Suzuki) was certain that a tough challenge lay ahead of him, as he had never before completed a race over such a demanding distance. It wasn’t just his 28th place out of 53 entrants that brought a smile to his face, but above all the fact that his girlfriend Nadine had accepted his marriage proposal, made immediately after he crossed the finish line.

Supersport Manx GP Results, Isle of Man, 22 August 2006

1. Johnny Stewart (GB), Ducati, 4 laps in 59:06.640 mins. 2. Graham Mcaleese (GB), Yamaha, 63.757 sec behind. 3. Eddy Warmald (GB), Suzuki, +72.988 sec. 4. Andrew Farrell (IRL), Triumph. 5. Owen Monaghan (GB), Suzuki. 6. Liam Chawke (IRL), Suzuki. Also: 8. Laurent Hoffmann (B), Yamaha. 10. Gabriel Pons (F), Honda. 13. Moritz Klaus (D), Honda. 15. Wally Jacobs (NL), Honda. 28. Thomas Altendorfer (A), Suzuki. 30. Nicolas Therouin (F), Ducati. 31. Markus Karlsson (S), Kawasaki. 37. Peter Lionel (F), Triumph. 38. Stéphane Bednarek (F), Yamaha. 44. August Kroon (DK), Yamaha.