The Southern 100 in 2014 boasted an impressive line up of quality riders including the likes of Michael Dunlop and 2013 Champion Guy Martin. However it was young Bradford rider Dean Harrison who followed up on his magnificent performance in the Lightweight TT to take five impressive victories, before Guy won the feature race to retain his ‘Solo Championship’ title. There was also a win for Lincolnshire based Ivan Lintin to cap off a very successful road race meeting for Metzeler riders.
It was a perfect start for Yorkshireman Harrison on his Ninja ZX-10R Superbike as he dominated the event to come ahead of Guy Martin on the Tyco Suzuki, before repeating the performance in the senior race to win by over 6 seconds.
In the first of the 650 Supertwin races Lintin dominated the race to finish ahead of Harrison and James Cowton setting a new lap record in the process. The second Supertwin race was probably to most exciting of the event as Harrison held off a challenge from James Cowton to win by just 0.001s.
Harrison continued where he had left off by also taking both Supersport victories on board the Mar-Train Yamaha YZF R6, with another lap record falling as he held off a challenge from Guy Martin with a 110.431mph lap.
The Manx Gas Solo Championship produced another epic tussle between Harrison and Martin, but this time it was Martin who came out on top to secure his first and only win of the event this year.
After winning the Manx Gas Solo Championship feature race, a typically exuberant Guy said:
“That was awesome, the tyre was mega. The grip was fantastic, any slides were controllable and only happened on the dusty edges of the road’.
Following the race Metzeler UK Racing Manager Jason Griffiths commented:
“It’s been a fantastic week of racing at the Billown circuit, helped by great weather which allowed us to run our softer compound tyres. We couldn’t be happier with the results of the Metzeler riders, congratulations to Dean for his impressive run of wins and to Guy for retaining his Southern 100 Solo Championship title.”
