TT 2022: Coward bags Privateer Championship top spot

Jamie Coward and the KTS Racing powered by Steadplan team ended their campaign at the 2022 Isle of Man TT Races with a strong eighth place in Saturday’s Senior race, the result seeing the Yorkshire rider win the TT Privateer’s Trophy with a maximum 125 points.

Originally scheduled to take place on Friday afternoon, the race was pushed back to an 11am start on Saturday and although windy conditions over the Mountain presented a major challenge, the race went ahead on time and over the full six laps with a first lap speed of 127.787mph putting Jamie in ninth place. A similar speed of 127.597mph second time around saw him consolidate the position and this remained the case for the next two laps. Despite the windy conditions continuing and, indeed, worsening slightly in the final few laps, a sixth and final lap of 128.211mph, his quickest lap of the race, enabled Jamie to complete the race in a fine eighth place. It was his fifth top eight finish with a maximum score of 125points, for the first privateer to finish in each race, enabling him and the team to pick up the TT Privateer’s Championship, the second time in a row Jamie has won the trophy. The 31-year old also consolidated his status as the fastest Yamaha rider in TT history, with a lap of 130.398mph in last Saturday’s Superbike race, and finished sixth overall in the riders’ Joey Dunlop TT Championship with the team taking an excellent fifth overall in the Team Championship. “Conditions were far from ideal today and it was a bit too windy for my liking so I rode accordingly. I was surprised to see P9 on my pit board early in the race as I didn’t feel that I was riding that well but everyone was obviously in the same boat and lap speeds were down,” said Coward.

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