Manxman Sean Murphy was victorious as racing at the 2009 Manx Grand Prix finally got under way today.

Riding for the Martin Bullock Racing team the 25-year-old from Douglas won the Newcomers A race, one of four held simultaneously on the Mountain Course this lunchtime.

The Newcomers A and B races were first down Glencrutchery Road - the riders in two capacity classes leaving in pairs ten seconds apart.

Showers and a stiffening breeze created some challenging conditions around the course - race organisers had already reduced the number of laps from four to three.

Despite the conditions Murphy finished 2 mins 2 secs ahead of Derek Shields from David Mulligan in third place.

Chris Kinley spoke to him afterwards: (play audio clip)

In Newcomers race B: Adrian Kershaw maintained his lead through most of the race to take the title on his 400cc Kawasaki. Andy Lawson finished in second place with Andrew Farrell in third.

The Post Classic is a new event for this year. But it attracted only 7 entrants in the 4-stroke.

Ryan Farquar's fantastic season continued, when he took the chequered flag on his 1000 cc Suzuki, 3 minutes 29 seconds ahead of Guy Martin. Dave Madsen-Mygdal finished third.

And finally in the Post Classic 2-stroke - which attracted a somewhat bigger field - a first win for Brian Mateer, more than 4 minutes ahead of Ewan Hamilton with Paul Coward in third place.