Ivan Lintin celebrated his 29th birthday in perfect style at the Ulster Grand Prix on Saturday as he swept to victory in the Lightweight race to claim his maiden International road race win. The Bardney rider was in superb form all week and came out on top of a sensational four-rider battle for honours that kept the thousands of race fans lining the hedgerows on edge throughout.
Riding the McKinstry Racing Kawasaki, Lintin had opened up a three-second lead after three of the six laps but the red flag came out for an incident and was re-started over the shorter distance of three laps that meant he had to do the hard work all over again. On this occasion though, the pack didn’t allow him to escape and the three laps saw a ferocious battle between Ivan, Derek McGee, Jamie Hamilton and Lee Johnston. Positions – and paint - were exchanged at practically every corner and going into the final lap there was less than half a second covering the quartet.
McGee went out soon after leaving the other three riders to fight it out and Ivan hit the front on the run down the Flying Kilo with just six miles of the race left to run. Hamilton was trying everything he knew and overhauled Ivan at Tournagrough but when he ran wide at the hairpin shortly afterwards, Ivan needed no second invitation and dived back up the inside. There was still work to do on the run back towards the line but Ivan held on by the tiny margin of 0.046s for a brilliant win.
The Lincolnshire rider was also in sparkling form in the Supersport races where he was riding the newly acquired Taylor Lindsey Honda, the machine having been previously ridden by Cameron Donald, for the first time. Having qualified in 15th place, the first 6-lap encounter started in damp conditions but conditions improved throughout, as did Ivan’s pace and he took a fine eighth place. However, his ride in the second 6-lap race was even better and he battled throughout the race with Donald, Ian Lougher and Dan Cooper. Enjoying a great scrap with Donald, Ivan set his best ever lap of the Dundrod circuit at 123.430mph but the Australian rider wasn’t to be denied and he just got the better of Ivan for sixth.
Speaking later, a delighted Ivan said; “It’s been a brilliant day and I’m absolutely over the moon to get my first International race victory. I just missed out on a podium at both the TT and North West 200 so to not only step onto the rostrum but to take the win as well is a dream come true. I got a really good lead in the first start of the Lightweight race so when the red flag came out I was a bit annoyed as, obviously it meant I had to do it all over again. Re-starts sometimes don’t go the same way and whilst I knew if I could get to the front I could make a break, I also knew that the others wouldn’t allow that second time around.”
“There was nothing between the four of us but once I’d got the lead at the start of the final lap, I felt confident I could keep them behind me. Jamie came by me though but I was able to fight back straightaway and hold on although it was a very tough race! The bike was flying so a big thanks to McKinstry Racing for giving me a bike that took me to my first International road race win.”
“The weather in practice meant I didn’t get many dry laps in on the Supersport bike but it’s an absolute missile and the two 600cc races couldn’t have gone any better either. The bike’s new to all of us so we’ve got a lot to learn and the thing I wanted most was to get two solid results so to end up with two top eight finishes is the icing on the cake. I spoke to Cameron after the second race and he said there was no way he was going to let me beat him on his old bike but to finish seventh and battle with a rider of his calibre shows what we can do so a huge thanks also to Taylor Lindsey and everyone involved in making this year possible.”
Ivan now has a few weeks off before returning to Oliver’s Mount, Scarborough for the International Gold Cup meeting on September 14-15.
Photo by Paul Woodlock.
