Bruce Anstey: "We're in with a chance at the TT this year"

Author: Oli Rushby Posted: 06 May 2015

New Zealand’s Bruce Anstey has said he reckons he’s in one of the best positions he’s ever been in to clinch victories at this year’s international road races.

The flying Kiwi was out at Castle Combe for the Dunlop tyre test last week, and told Bike Social he feels the Padgetts Superbike engine is the best he’s ever had.

“We did a load of work at Castle Combe, it was really good”, said the Flying Kiwi. “The bike is great, we’ve made a few changes and improved a few things – I feel like we’re heading in the right direction. The superbike is really strong, I think it’s the best engine we’ve ever had so I think we’re in with a really good chance, not just in superbike but in the other classes too.”

There are at least half a dozen riders capable of winning at this year’s North West 200 and Isle of Man TT, so things will be tough but Anstey is pinning hope on those riding unfamiliar bikes needing to spend more time searching for set-up.

He continued: “Everybody is so fast now, the good thing for us is that quite a lot of them are on new bikes which is good for us as we’re set up and ready to go. Hopefully the others will struggle for set up!”

Anstey became the fastest man ever to lap the 37.73-mile Isle of Man TT course last year, with an incredible average speed of 132.298mph. However, it’s thought that record could go again this year with talk now being focused on a 133mph or sub-17 minute lap. 

“I was a bit peeved that I ran wide in the superbike race last year, so in the last few laps I was just making sure the bike was ready for the senior so I pushed to make sure the suspension and everything was working properly and ended up with quite a good lap!” explained Anstey. “I was watching the onboard lap the other day and I made quite a few mistakes, I missed a lot of apexes and made a big mistake at Creg-ny-baa so now we’re all talking about the sub-17 lap and on a good day we might be getting close. It has to be a good day, no wind, so we’ll just have to wait and see.”

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