New Zealander, Bruce Anstey was born this day in 1969. His mother was from the home of the TT so Bruce already had the connection, but as he watched Mike Hailwood’s return to the Isle of Man TT in 1978, his course was set.
Anstey made his Isle of Man TT debut in 1996 riding a Yamaha 250cc that finished in 29th place in the Lightweight TT. He won the Junior TT in 2003 aboard a Triumph Daytona, giving Triumph its first TT win in twenty seven years. Twelve years later, in 2015, Anstey achieved the highlight of his career, winning the Superbike TT.
Bruce won his first ever TT Zero race in 2016, which he repeated in 2017. His record contains wins in the Superbike, Supersport, Superstock, Production 1000cc, TT Zero and Lightweight 250cc categories at the TT.
Between 2000 and 2017, Anstey finished on the podium at the Isle of Man TT at least once every year. In 2018 he was sidelined as be battled cancer.
In total he took 37 TT podiums, which is the third highest of all time, bettered by only John McGuinness and Joey Dunlop.
Apart from the TT, where he achieved four Classic wins and seven podiums, Anstey won the North West 200 10 times and was on the podium 25 times. He also had 13 Ulster Grand Prix and 31 podiums to his name.
