Bruce Anstey has won the SES TT Zero Challenge for Team Mugen at the Isle of Man TT 2016. Last year’s winner and road racing icon John McGuiness fell back to fourth place owing to some technical problems in his bike. Nevertheless, 47-year-old Anstey made sure that Team Mugen retained its crown for the third consecutive year.
Anstey rode the Mugen Shinden Go, which is the fifth generation of the electric superbike. While Team Mugen had aimed to achieve a 201kmph lap around the mountain course with their new race machine, they fell 11kmph short of their target. Anstey completed the lap of the mountain course in 19 minutes and 17 seconds, with an average speed of 190.5kmph.
This year’s TT Zero electric motorcycle class saw a lot more excitement than the previous editions, thanks to the stiff competition presented by Victory Racing. Riding the Victory Empulse RR, William Dunlop finished 25.4 seconds behind Anstey. Nevertheless, Dunlop did clock the fastest speed recorded in the race after touching 257kmph. The motorcycle fielded by University of Nottingham finished third with British rider Daley Mathison, while the fifth position went to Allann Venter riding for Brunel University’s project race bike. Only five of the total seven competitors ended up racing, as team Sarolea Racing had to sit out the race due to some technical problems.
