Randalstown racer makes podium for second time this year after another dramatic weekend

EUGENE McManus celebrated his second podium of the year with second place in the Sprint Race at Thruxton.

Sunday’s feature race was red-flagged three times, resulting in a fourth place for McManus.

A little frustrating for the Randalstown rider after leading the restart and looking for his first ever British Supersport win, only for the race to be stopped. In the final restart, he secured fourth.

Harry Truelove fared better in the stop-start Feature Race on Sunday. He achieved a great result of finishing 7th, following a 12th place in Saturday’s Sprint Race.

Both Eugene McManus and Harry Truelove had done more than enough in the two Friday Free Practice sessions to go straight into Q2 on Saturday morning at Thruxton. In the short 15-minute session, both MMB Racing riders entered the pits after just five minutes. McManus was 16th at the time and Truelove 19th.

They both returned to the track a few minutes later after some adjustments, which worked. McManus put his Ducati Panigale on the front row in third position, and Truelove improved to start 12th on the grid.

Lights out and 34 riders launched from the grid at Thruxton to start the 12-lap sprint race.

McManus lost a position in the first corner but had recovered it by the end of lap one. In the initial stages, he was shadowed by the current British Supersport Champion, Jack Kennedy and also former British Champion Luke Stapleford.

Despite the pressure from such quality riders, McManus managed to pull away and chase down the leading two riders.

Mid-race, McManus caught and passed Ben Currie, another former British Supersport Champion, before starting to try and close the gap on the race leader.

McManus was unable to catch the race leader but took his second podium of the season with a hard-fought second-place finish.

It was McManus’ second podium of the season, having finished third at Oulton Park in the opening round.

Harry Truelove made good progress in the opening laps. Moving from 12th to 10th in the early laps.

Truelove dropped back to 12th on lap six and maintained that position until the flag, picking up four valuable points in the championship.

The Feature Race was anything but straightforward, with three red flags, a safety car, and more restarts than anyone would want.

Through it all, MMB Racing’s Eugene McManus and Harry Truelove kept their heads, delivering strong results in the most disrupted race of the season.

Starting from the front row in P2, McManus was right in the fight from the opening lap.

The first attempt lasted barely two and a half laps before a crash for the race leader brought out the red flag.

Harry Truelove, starting from the 11th, was sitting 13th at the time.

With the original leader out, the restart was cut to 14 laps, and McManus wasted no time in grabbing the lead.

He controlled the pace at the front for five laps, with Truelove climbing into the top ten, before yet another red flag halted proceedings when a rider ran off at the final chicane.

The third start saw the race reduced to just nine laps, and even then, it did not go the distance.

A safety car on lap two closed the pack up, with McManus in 3rd and Truelove in 8th. When racing resumed, McManus slipped to 4th while Truelove moved up to 7th.

Just as the fight was heating up, the red flag flew for a third and final time on lap eight, sealing the results. McManus placed fourth and Truelove seventh.

Eugene McManus said confidence was growing within the team.

“It was great to be back on the podium in the Sprint Race with my best result of the season so far,” said the local man.

“The team have been working really hard so I was pleased I could reward them and the sponsors with a podium.

“We had the pace to fight for the win in Sunday’s Feature Race.

“I led the second restart and felt really comfortable – but with all the red flags we just never got the chance to see it through.

“Still, a second and a fourth are strong results, and we’ll take that momentum into the next round.”

Harry Truelove agreed that overall it was a good weekend at Thruxton.

“It’s never been one of my best tracks and we struggled a lot with setup.

“Twelfth in qualifying and race 1 was the best I could do but some really positive changes for Sunday gave us a much better chance in the Feature Race.

“It was very stop start race but we moved forward and got up to seventh through it all. I hope everyone who came off is okay and recovering well.”

MMB Racing are back in action at Round 7 Cadwell Park from 23rd to 25th of August.