John McGuinness scorched to his 12th TT victory when he took today’s delayed 6-lap Superbike race, coming home ahead of young rivals Guy Martin and Ian Hutchinson.

Postponed from Saturday, and further delayed by two hours due to damp and misty conditions, the race eventually got underway at 12.45pm and the HM Plant Honda rider put in his usual quick first lap to head the field.

With an opening lap speed of 127.804mph, despite a few damp patches, McGuinness led Martin by 4.5 seconds with Hutchinson in third ahead of Martin Finnegan and Ian Lougher, but the Hydrex Honda of Martin was making a fight of it and the gap had only extended by half a second at Ramsey Hairpin.

However, a blistering run over the Mountain saw him break the class lap record at 128.279mph and a perfect pit stop saw his lead rocket up to 17 seconds - from here on in his lead was never under threat.

Martin suffered at both pit stops and, having done the hard work of overhauling Hutchinson and Finnegan on the road, on both occasions he had to do it all over again, but he managed to achieve the feat and continued to press hard. McGuinness, whose lead was up to 36 seconds at the end of lap four, rode to his signals for the remaining 75 miles though, and allowed his advantage to drop down to 26 seconds at the chequered flag. 

It was win number 12 for the Morecambe man, the third highest total in history, and he led home Martin and Hutchinson with the top six being completed by Finnegan, Lougher and Ryan Farquhar.

Adrian Archibald took seventh ahead of Conor Cummins and Ian Armstrong, whilst the excellent newcomer Steve Plater won the last of the silver replicas. There were also impressive performances from fellow first-timers Keith Amor in 14th and Gary Johnson in 20th.

The honour of the fastest lap speed ever set by a newcomer fell to Amor whose last lap was a superb 123.750mph.

McGuinness’ total of 12 wins was matched just a few hours later when Dave Molyneux came from behind to take the opening F2 Sidecar race, making it a doubly successful day for the HM Plant Honda team.