Cameron Donald gave Relentless Suzuki win number two at TT 2008 taking the Superstock victory in a four-lap thriller on the Mountain Circuit earlier today. The 30-year-old Aussie took a slender one second lead going onto lap two; he then increased that advantage to 15 seconds over the next three laps, handing Suzuki their seventh Superstock TT victory in as many years. Bruce Anstey was the pre-race favourite but a heavy cold left the Kiwi feeling less than one hundred percent and he retired at the end of the second lap.
Cameron Donald“I felt confident from the start of the race as I’ve had plenty of time on the GSX–R1000 ‘stocker, and I also had a pretty good North West 200 on it. I must admit, I did feel that I’d be riding shotgun to Bruce here today but when I got my first board on the course showing P5 +0, I really put my head down. There was thick mist on the Mountain on that opening lap but I ride in those conditions at home in Australia, so I just gave it the berries, as there was no chance of a kangaroo jumping out on me over here! The first lap didn’t feel that fast to be honest, but I must give big credit to Pirelli as their tyre was superb in those conditions. After that I just broke the lead out and the boys in the garage gave me an awesome pit stop. I just rode the edge of my pace on the final lap and nursed it home – the GSX–R1000 never missed a beat. After all the pre-race hype it was nice to stand on the podium beside John McGuinness and Guy Martin knowing I’d beaten them fare and square.
In the 600 race I felt really confident, as Philip took the pressure off me by telling me to just use it as a practice session. The K8 GSX–R600 really is the sweetest handling bike I’ve ever ridden, but I just didn’t get enough time on it due to the cancelled practice sessions. I was disappointed with 9th but we can now make some minor changes before Wednesday’s second race.”
Bruce Anstey“I just felt really unwell this morning and I struggled to hang on to the superstock bike on those first couple of laps. I thought the best thing to do was to pull in and save myself for the supersport race.”
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“It was another phenomenal result today for Cameron and the whole Relentless Suzuki team in general. What a week Cameron has had so far and it’s also superb that Suzuki can boast seven TT superstock victories on the trot. Six of those have been on TAS prepared engines. This win brings our tally of TT victories up to 13, which according to Paul Phillips [Motorsport Manager on the Isle of Man], makes us the most successful team in the event’s 101 year history.”
Result International Superstock TT:Winner – Cameron Donald [Relentless Suzuki] 1hr 11mins 59.692nd – John McGuinness [Honda] 1hr 12mins 14.76
3rd – Guy Martin [Honda] 1hr 12mins 17.71
Fastest Lap: Cameron Donald [Relentless Suzuki] 17mins 44.95 [127.544mph]
