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Pic- New Zealand's Bruce Anstey:
Ray Whitham has penned this review of the upcoming 2005 Isle of Man TT for Silver-Bullet:
Is Bruce Anstey set to become New Zealand’s most successful Isle of Man rider when racing in the 2005 TT Festival starts on Saturday? Anstey’s tally of TT wins stands at three, the same number as Graeme Crosby, but his form last week in winning the North-West 200 Superbike title in Northern Ireland suggests that the record-breaking TT win number four may not be far away.
Crosby was only the third New Zealander to win a TT, after Rod Coleman in 1954 and Hugh Anderson in 1963 and 1964. His first win was the coveted Senior TT in 1980 and in 1981 he won both the Formula 1 and the Classic TT titles. For the record, in 1980 he finished in second place in the Formula 1 race behind multi-TT winner Mick Grant.
Tourist Trophy history records these as the “Crosby Years”, as much for his results perhaps as for the fact that he was the first rider in TT history to win a six-lap race in under 2 hours. He achieved that feat in his Classic TT win with a race time of 1hr 59min 34.8sec. He also set a new lap record in the Formula 1 race.
Bruce Anstey’s accumulation of TT titles has been more patient, having a win in each of the last three years with the 250cc title in 2002, the Junior 600cc TT in 2003, and the Production 1000cc TT last year. Indeed, he came perilously close last year to picking up that elusive fourth TT win, making five visits to the prizewinners podium, three as a runner-up, but just that once to the top step.
In the Production 1000cc class in 2003 he finished second to fellow-Kiwi Shaun Harris, while in his 2004 win he claimed race and lap records. His new lap record was a staggering 201.28 km/h average, 6.9 seconds under that set by the late David Jeffries.
Only two riders in the history of the TT have raced around the famous 37¾-mile long mountain course faster than Bruce Anstey. One is Jefferies, still credited with the Senior TT lap record set in 2002 and the other is Englishman John McGuinness, last years triple-TT hero, back this year to defend his titles.
Returning to the island for the fifteenth year, Shaun Harris, a double winner in 2003, must also be given a chance of hitting the four-TT jackpot, although with much longer odds. Like Anstey he too shares a record with Graeme Crosby. joining him as the only other New Zealander to have two TT wins in the same year. There can be few circuits in world motor sport where experience counts as much as it does at the Isle of Man. Of this years entry list only Welshman Ian Lougher has completed more laps around the TT course than Shaun Harris.
The fields for this year’s festival are rated the strongest in recent TT history and Bruce Anstey and his TAS Suzuki team-mate Adrian Archibald are amongst the favourites.
This year’s prize-pool is a record £500,000. The first race is the Superbike TT over 6 laps and it starts at noon on Saturday (local time).
