JOHNSON, NEVE AND COOK LINE UP FOR ALASDAIR COWAN RACING

Alasdair Cowan Racing will once again have a three-rider line up for this year’s Manx Grand Prix as they look to retain their Mylchreest Group Senior Manx Grand Prix title won last year, and regain the RST Classic Superbike crown they last won in 2019.

The Scottish-based team took a commanding victory in last year’s Senior Race with Stephen Smith topping the leaderboard throughout qualifying before leading the race from start to finish. Aided by the fastest lap of 121.796mph, he eventually won by almost 40 seconds.

With the Liverpudlian having moved up to the Isle of Man TT – where he excelled this year with four top twenty finishes – the task of riding the Kawasaki ZX-6R has fallen to Hawick’s Chris Cook, the Scottish town that multiple TT winners Jimmy Guthrie and Steve Hislop also came from.

The now 34-year old made his Manx GP debut in 2014 and has ridden Kawasaki machinery ever since, improving his results and speeds year on year. Indeed, after taking 11th and 12th in 2019, he finished sixth last year with a fastest lap of 119.491mph and will be aiming to finish on the podium this year to give further success to Cowan’s team.

That applies too in the Classic Superbike class where David Johnson and Craig Neve will once again line up on the blue and yellow Kawasaki ZXR750 machines.

Both will line up firmly amongst the race favourites with Johnson having won the race in 2019 and lapped at 125.150mph when it was part of the Classic TT programme. He finished third twelve months ago with an improved lap of 125.239mph and only missed out on second by just over half a second.

Neve, meanwhile, finished ninth in 2019 before really upping the ante last year when he led in the early stages. He lapped slightly quicker than his Australian team-mate at 125.496mph but was unluckily forced to retire on the final lap when running in a close second to eventual winner Rob Hodson.

With Cook, Johnson and Neve on board, all three undoubtedly have the class to take the race wins and the team have a great chance of adding to their previous high-class results around the Mountain Course.