MANX rider Tom Clucas was a little disappointed with second place in Monday's open class of the Newcomers MGP.

"After the practice week we had I suppose I should be glad to get a finish at all,' he admitted. 'We had six break downs, including one major blow-up. Slick Bass rebuilt the best motor, but that started leaking oil again in the final practice so I stuck with a more standard engine out of a crashed bike I bought from Neil Muirhead last week.

"My arms pumped up badly on the second lap and I lost 15 seconds between Glen Helen and Ramsey.

"The pit stop was a disaster too. When I came in nothing was ready for me - then when I got going I noticed the key had been left in the tank filler cap and was pushing into my chest as I lay flat going down Bray. I ran wide at Quarter Bridge, pulled out the key and threw it to a marshal.

"Other than all that, everything ran pretty well really!"

Clucas was over half a minute clear of third placed David Bell at the close. The only other local finisher was Peter Corfield of Ramsey, who was precisely half way down the field of 28 riders at an average speed of 104.45mph - well inside the silver replicas.