Trophies galore for Jefferies

David Jefferies arrived in the Isle of Man last week having never won a TT trophy, but yesterday he picked up his third with blistered hands, and drank his champagne through a broad grin.

After winning the Formula One race on Saturday, he completed his hat-trick by winning the Production and Senior races yesterday.

Having picked up his first three North West 200 trophies only last month, the 26-year-old Yorkshireman was determined to add more silverware to the family trophy cabinet. His father, Tony, has won two TTs , and his uncle, Nick, has won one.

His wins for the V&M team on Yamaha's R1 rocket-ship spelled bad news for the Honda factory team, who must now be reeling from the shock of being booted off the manufacturers podium.

The results could have been different, however. Jefferies's team mate, Iain Duffus, was leading the production race but ran out of petrol only 11/2 miles from the finish of the 113-mile three-lap race.

Jefferies himself had an early runout of petrol at the end of lap two. Approaching the pits, his bike began to cough and splutter and he actually had to push it to the refuelling point.

"I was panicking when my fuel light came on in Ramsey," said Jefferies after his production victory. "I could only have won this on the Yamaha, it was just perfect," he continued. Armagh's Philip McCallen put in an impressive performance on his Yamaha to gain third place. McCallen required intensive physiotherapy before the race. He is nursing a shoulder injury he picked up following a crash earlier in the season. He opted not to compete in the six-lap senior event because of the lack of strength required over the punishing 226-mile race.

Scotland's Jim Moodie looked promising on the Honda RC45 at the beginning of the senior event. Jaws dropped all around the 373/4-mile circuit when he butchered 7.4 secs off the fastest ever TT lap by completing lap one in 18 mins 11.4 secs, an average speed of 124.45 mph. The most stunning aspect of this new record was that it was achieved from a standing start. The record had been held for seven years by Carl Fogarty.

Moodie was forced to withdraw from the race on lap two after his bike developed handling problems.

David Jefferies led the race from that point, and beat Iain Duffus by 46 seconds.

Joey Dunlop finished in fifth place. He was his usual quiet self when asked if he would now consider retiring. At 47, and with 23 TT victories, he remains a living legend on the island.

Production race: 1, D Jefferies (Yamaha) 56:49.9 (119.50 mph); 2, J Griffiths (Yamaha) 57:16.6 (118.57); 3, P McCallen (Yamaha) 57:24.4 (118.30); 4, A Archibald (Honda) 57:45.5 (117.58); 5, G Blackley (Kawasaki) 58:05.1 (116.92).

Senior race: 1, D Jefferies (Yamaha) 1:51:59.8 (121.27); 2, I Duffus (Yamaha) 1:52:46.1 (120.44); 3, I Lougher (Honda) 1:52:47.2 (120.42); 4, N Davies (Yamaha)) 1:53:22.9 (119.79); 5, J Dunlop (Honda) 1:53:28.5 (119.69).

Troy Corser set the fastest time in yesterday's opening qualifying session for round six of the World Superbike championship at the Nurburgring in Germany. The Australian topped the leaderboard with the provisional front row of four riders split by just 0.02 seconds.

The Honda pairing of Aaron Slight and Colin Edwards were second and third with defending champion and series leader Carl Fogarty fourth.

Kawasaki's Akira Yanagawa was the fifth quickest rider.