Lee Johnston achieved a lifelong dream by claiming his first victory at the Isle of Man TT Races.

The Maguiresbridge rider took the chequered flag in Monday’s shortened Supersport race to capture the greatest win of his road racing career, as his family watched on from the grandstand.

“It is something that you work most of your adult life to achieve, and when it comes through it is a big deal,” acknowledged Johnston.

“It was an amazing, amazing feeling and obviously to have my mum and Christie and Jessie here as well made it very special. It’s unbelievable. I really don’t know how to describe it and I probably won’t realise it’s happened until I’m sitting at home some day.”

The TT week has been plagued with bad weather, with practice curtailed by rain and fog, but Johnston had re-enforced his ability to win the Supersport race with a quickest time around the mountain course.

He was looking to add the TT victory to his Supersport win at last month’s North West 200, and he was quickly among the front runners when the race rolled into action.

“I have three pit boards around the course and the first one is too close to the start to know, but the second one is at Ballaugh and I was P2 and minus one second so I knew I was having a good battle,” revealed Lee.

“The next one is at the Bungalow and I was P1 and plus two or three seconds so I pulled that gap out quickly. The next lap I was P1 and plus four or five, but then I dropped back to two seconds ahead because it was starting to get wet.

“It was wetter for me and Peter (Hickman) than it was for Dean (Harrison) and (James) Hillier because they got through first and we had a bit more rain. Then I stretched it out again over the mountain.”

The race was scheduled for four laps, but with the weather closing in and road conditions deteriorating the organisers decided to cut the race short and produced the chequered flag at half distance.

The unexpected finish surprised Lee, who admitted he wasn’t sure if he had done enough when he crossed the finish line.

“I wasn’t expecting the chequered flag. It was a bit of a shock and I wasn’t sure what to do,” he admitted. “I was looking up the pit lane and I caught the flag out of the corner of my eye, so I sped up again because I had rolled off. I was lucky not to lose it by not seeing the flag to be honest. I didn’t even know if I had won when I went across the line because I thought I had maybe I took it too steady. I pulled in to the return lane and I could see the crowd going mental. I didn’t know where I had finished but I wanted to make sure so I had to stop and ask. I signalled to ask was I first or second, and everyone went ‘First’. It was all a bit too much to take in at the moment.”

The victory came in Lee’s second outing of the week. His first appearance was on the Superbike, but a minor mechanical problem meant Lee was unable to challenge among the leaders, and he pulled into the pits after lap two.

Lee still has several opportunities to add to his debut TT win, with further rides in Superbike, Supersport and Supertwin races scheduled before the end of the race week.