IOM TT Races 2008
25th May 08COMPETITORS GET UNDERWAY AT ISLE OF MAN TT RACES 2008
Practice for the 2008 Isle of Man TT Races got underway this evening and after a 20 minute delay to proceedings, due to signage around the course being completed, the honour of leading off the line fell to two of the newcomers, Jamie Robinson (Padgett’s Manx Gas Racing Honda) and James Hillier (Martin Bullock Suzuki). The duo were led around by John Barton, one of the rider liaison officers with dry and sunny weather ensuring a good session could be completed. Riders were warned of a lack of adhesion at Snugborough but general track conditions were favourable.
At 6.56pm, it was the time of the leading solo riders to start their race preparations in earnest and Guy Martin (Hydrex Bike Animal Honda) and Cameron Donald (Relentless by TAS Suzuki) were the first pairing away followed by Bruce Anstey and Adrian Archibald. They were followed in quick succession by Ian Hutchinson, Gary Johnson, John McGuinness and Carl Rennie with Martin, Anstey, Hutchinson, McGuinness and Ian Lougher just some of the riders to go out on their Superbike machines. Steve Plater, Mark Parrett and Chris Palmer were out on their Supersport machines whilst Keith Amor and John Burrows were aboard their Superstock bikes.
Robinson and Hillier were, naturally, the first two to complete the lap with Hillier enthusing about the course upon his return to the pits: ‘Unbelievable, what a buzz – I kept looking over my shoulder to see if the police were chasing us!’
Martin and Archibald were first of the established competitors through the start and finish and carried on for another lap whilst many riders called in to make a few changes before heading back out for a couple more laps. The general consensus was that conditions all around the course were good and it was just great to be back – after a year away, they were all itching to get going and used the session to feel their way back in to the 37 and ¾ miles. Despite the delay at the start of the session, the riders were able to get in 3 full laps of the course and should have made good progress with their set-up.
At 8.00pm it was the turn of the F2 Sidecars and they were lead away by
reigning World Champions Tim Reeves and Patrick Farrance who had just flown
in from Donington Park , where they qualified on pole for the opening round
of this year's Championship. Roy Hanks, competing in his 43rd TT, and Dave Wells were the escort for the newcomers with other crews following them including Mark Brown/David Brown, Camiel Mellegers/Simone van Berckel and Geoff Smale/Lee Barrett.
Twenty minutes later the established competitors were given the all clear
sign and it was Dave Molynuex and Dan Sayle who got away first on their DMR
Suzuki followed by Nick Crowe/Mark Cox (LCR Honda), John Holden/Andy Winkle
(LCR Suzuki), Phil Dongworth/Stu Castles (Ireson Honda), Gary Bryan/Robert
Bell (Baker Yamaha), Simon Neary/Jamie Winn (Baker Suzuki) and Tony
Elmer/Darren Marshall (Ireson Yamaha). Klaus Klaffenbock and Christian
Parzer were also amongst the first few crews out on the course with the 2001
World Champion now competing in the colours of Padgett's Manx Gas Racing.
Crowe was first to complete a lap having overhauled Moly out on the circuit
but, whilst he pulled in, Moly continued for another lap. Holden also pulled
in and stated a few adjustments were required for the suspension with
conditions still good everywhere despite the fading light. Bryan, Dongworth
and Greg Lambert all carried on for another lap while Neary was another to
briefly make a few changes before carrying on again.
MARTIN SETS THE PACE IN FIRST TIMED PRACTICE AT 2008 IOM TT RACES
Monday evening’s practice session was held in dry, bright conditions but with strong winds all over the Island , caution still had to be exercised by all of the competitors with the 32nd milestone, in particular, being singled out as an area to watch. Just like Saturday, it was Guy Martin and Cameron Donald who led the field away on their Superbikes and James McBride and Carl Rennie, Ryan Farquhar and Conor Cummins, and Adrian Archibald and Bruce Anstey followed them in quick succession. All were Superbike mounted with the exception of Cummins who opted for his Supersport machine whilst Keith Amor and Chris Palmer also took out their 600cc mounts.
One man who was having problems was Ian Hutchinson and his R6 Yamaha caught fire in the holding area before the session had even begun. The Bingley rider was clearly unsettled but he eventually went out although he was again out of luck, pulling off the course at the Cronk y Voddy and making his way back to the Grandstand. He went out on his Superstock bike whilst his teammate Steve Plater also had problems although he did make it to Cronk ny Mona before the gremlins struck.
The first man back at the Grandstand was again Martin and with a lap of 124.81mph he had opened up a small gap over Donald who wasn’t far behind at 124.51mph. Anstey and Archibald also completed their lap in close formation lapping at 124.57mph and 124.35mph respectively whilst John McGuinness took his Padgett’s Honda around at 124.26mph. Martin pulled in to jump on his 600cc Honda but only got as far as the end of pit lane when he encountered problems and a quick change saw him out on his Superstock machine.
The lap speeds increased on the second lap and it was McGuinness who upped the ante lapping at 125.96mph but it was close at the top with Archibald (125.86), Donald (125.82) and Anstey (125.77) only fractions behind whilst Ryan Farquhar posted an impressive lap of 125.35mph, not too far off his best ever lap around the Mountain Course. Dan Stewart, Gary Johnson and Ian Lougher lapped above 123mph on their Superbikes whilst Les Shand put in a lap of 121.37mph on his Superstock Yamaha.
With conditions good, the riders were keen to get in as many laps as possible on all of their machines and McGuinness set the fastest Supersport lap of the evening at 122.30mph ahead of Cummins (121.49mph), Hutchinson (120.36) and Stewart (119.95). Swedish rider Mats Nilsson looked fast at 119.82mph whilst Plater was also looking strong on the AIM R6 Yamaha with a speed of 119.78mph.
In the Superstock class it was that man Anstey again who went to the top of the tree with a speed of 125.94mph, faster than his earlier Superbike time, whilst Martin was again going well at 124.08mph. Donald was third at 123.29mph with James McBride in fourth at 122.12. However, the Kettering man was involved in a high-speed incident at Gorse Lea in the final minutes of the session. He was taken to Nobles Hospital and is described as having major fractures. Angelo Conti was described as having a leg injury after an incident at the 33rd.
With riders clearly held up by the incident, the majority of positions remained the same but Martin had been ahead on the road and he went to the top of the Superbike class with a final lap of 126.02mph.
Meanwhile, the two newcomers, James Hillier and Jamie Robinson, were steadily improving lapping at 110.29mph and 109.06mph respectively.
With McBride’s accident having occurred, there was obviously debris to be cleared and, subsequently, the F2 sidecars lost half of their session, eventually getting underway at just after 8.25pm. Nick Crowe and Mark Cox again set the pace at 112.85mph on their LCR Honda whilst the Suzuki powered outfit of John Holden and Andy Winkle wasn’t too far behind at 111mph. Klaus Klaffenbock and Christina Parzer again looked strong at 109.13mph just ahead of Simon Neary/Jamie Winn (108.83) and Phil Dongworth/Stu Castles (108.05).
Tim Reeves and Patrick Farrance, meanwhile, showed their world championship class with a lap of 103.71mph to clearly mark them as one to watch and fellow newcomers Mark and David Brown were also impressive at 100.87mph.
Dave Molyneux and Dan Sayle encountered a few problems and could only post a lap of 107.52mph whilst Steve Norbury and Rick Long also circulated relatively slowly at 101.03mph.
With the 30-minute delay, the chairs were only able to manage one lap and they will be hoping the fine weather remains for tomorrow evening’s session.
Tuesday 27/5/08
only 5 riders went out on a wet IOM TT race course.
POOR CONDITIONS ON IOM LEAD TO LIMITED PRACTICE SESSION
Despite persistent rain and low cloud covering the Island during Tuesday, the evening’s practice went session ahead but such were the conditions only six solo riders ventured out on to the circuit. The rain that had been falling during the day finally stopped and the cloud lifted sufficiently on the Mountain for the practice to commence at 7pm but none of the top 30 riders left the confines of their awnings or motorhomes so it was left to veteran campaigners Alan ‘Bud’ Jackson and David Madsen-Mygdal to set off down Glencrutchery Road first.
They were followed by Antonio Maeso, James Edmeades, who was having his first lap of the TT08 festival having competed in the KTM Super Duke Series at Donington Park on Bank Holiday Monday, John Barton and Alessio Corradi. For the latterly named, it was certainly a baptism of fire as the Italian newcomer got his first taste of the Mountain Circuit on a closed road.
The severity of the conditions could be seen in the lap times and it was Madsen-Mygdal who had the honour of topping the timesheets at 87.25mph, some 27mph down on his best lap the previous evening! He was followed by Jackson (84.30), Edmeades (82.49), Corradi (79.97), Barton (79.92) and Maeso (76.16) with all six riders limited to just one lap.
Having had their session truncated by James McBride’s unfortunate accident the evening before, the F2 sidecars were given a full, hour long session and, unlike their solo counterparts, a vastly higher proportion of crews took to the line with almost 40 outfits taking part in the session.
Tim Reeves and Patrick Farrance utilized the session to its fullest, getting in a full quota of 3 laps thus increasing their knowledge further and the reigning World Champions ended up second on the night with a speed of 94.00mph. Steve Coombes and Gary Partridge also put in 3 laps of the course and they were fastest at 95.11mph.
Roy Hanks and Dave Wells were first to complete a lap but a combination of the weather and a puncture kept their speed down to 88.74mph. They eventually went back out to slot into fifth place overall on 93.25mph, just behind Phil Dongworth/Stu Castles (93.87) and Keith Walters/Alun Thomas (93.59).
Nick Crowe and Steve Norbury had very sedate outings, lapping at 82.89mph and 73.89mph respectively, whilst, like Monday evening, a number of the crews encountered problems during the course of the session with Peter Farrelly/Jason Miller, Mike Roscher/Michael Hildebrand and Wal Saunders/Eddy Kiff all being reported as having stopped out on the course.
Empty Paddock yesterday due to bad weather on the TT course.
TT preparation continues on in preparation for the 1st race on Saturday.
The famous TT course
PERFECT PRACTICE CONDITIONS SEE LEADING CONTENDERS POST FAST TIMES AT THURSAY’S IOM TT RACES PRACTICE
Michael Dunlop back on the Island to practice for this years TT races.
After two days of miserable weather, the sunshine returned to the Isle of Man and Thursday evening’s practice session was held in almost perfect conditions. A few damp patches remained under the trees after two days of rain and riders were also warned off mist in the Waterworks section. However, it was a civilian incident in the Ballaugh area that prevented the action getting underway on time and it was 6.41pm when the first riders blasted off the line, Ryan Farquhar and Cameron Donald leading the field away.
As per Monday evening, the majority of riders were Superbike mounted with Farquhar being the main exception on his 600cc Kawasaki and it was again Guy Martin who completed the first lap at a speed of 126.191mph. The Suzuki pairing of Bruce Anstey and Adrian Archibald were both over 125mph whilst John McGuinness, who had made a number of changes to the Padgett’s Honda Fireblade, was down the order at 121.58mph. Dan Stewart again impressed at 123.95mph on his Superstock machine with Ian Hutchinson, Carl Rennie, Gary Johnson and Ian Lougher also lapping above 122mph.
Second time around and the speeds increased with Martin upping his pace to 127.08mph, Anstey 126.47mph and Donald 126.07mph. Meanwhile, Farquhar was setting the pace in the 600’s at 122.03mph with impressive Swede Mats Nilsson posting his first ever 120mph lap at 120.09mph.
The pits were a hive of activity with riders frequently calling in to either make changes or swap machines but a number of riders were out of luck on the circuit with Michael Dunlop, Tim Poole and Paul Hunt all reported as having stopped. Davy Morgan only got as far as the end of pit lane before problems struck and he had to make a quick switch to his Superstock machine in order to get his session started.
McGuinness did three laps on his Superbike as he sought to get the set up more to his liking and he set a lap of 126.69mph on his final lap to slot into second overall behind Martin. One of the stars of the evening though was Farquhar who took his Superstock machine around at 126.65mph, comfortably quicker than his personal best of 125.74mph set back in 2005. Anstey’s earlier lap saw him finish 4th on the leaderboard with Hutchinson (126.29mph) also making strides forward with the R1 Yamaha.
Farquhar’s lap saw him top the Superstock class by a considerable margin ahead of Martin (124.59), Stewart (123.59), Archibald (122.99), Johnson (122.98) and Conor Cummins (122.47).
In the Supersport class, a final lap of 122.65mph saw Anstey top the timesheets and he led the way from Farquhar (122.03), Plater (121.84), Keith Amor (121.62), Donald (120.85) and Ian Lougher (120.09). Meanwhile, the two newcomers were again impressing greatly with Jamie Robinson upping his speeds to 114.39mph and James Hillier only fractions behind at 114.26mph.
After their wet session on Tuesday evening, the F2 Sidecars finally got a decent run and the 55-minute session saw all crews take advantage of the good conditions with some fast laps being posted. Dave Molyneux and Dan Sayle look to have firmly got to grips with their Suzuki powered outfit and after an opening lap of 114.95mph, they went slightly quicker second time around at 115.06mph.
Nick Crowe and Mark Cox also put in two laps but it was their opening speed of 112.94mph that saw them end up in second with Klaus Klaffenbock and Christian Parzer one place back at 111.46mph. John Holden/Andy Winkle (111.07mph), Steve Norbury/Rick Long (109.90) and Phil Dongworth/Stu Castles (109.64) completed the top six whilst Tim Reeves and Patrick Farrance lapped at a brilliant 107.95mph on their third lap to end the session in 9th.
Phil Wain
PRESS RELEASE - John McGuinness
McGuinness goes fastest in TT practice
John McGuinness saved the best until last in practice week for the 2008 Isle of Man TT Races, rocketing to the top of the Superbike times with a lap of 128.61mph in Friday evening’s final session. The Morecambe man, riding the Padgett’s Manx Gas Racing Honda, had endured a few handling issues during the course of the week and, with Tuesday and Wednesday evening’s practice having been lost to poor weather, it was vital that he found a good setting heading into the first race on Saturday.
Thursday evening saw him go the wrong way with the adjustments to the front end of the machine but the necessary changes were made on Friday and, after an opening lap of 127.38mph, he went quickest for the week on his second lap with his 128mph+ lap. This puts him in great shape going into tomorrow’s opening 6-lap Superbike race.
He was equally impressive in his other two classes and although he didn’t get to do a lap on the Superstock machine until Thursday evening, he was able to go second fastest overall with a lap of 126.56mph on Friday evening. His regular 600cc Padgett’s Honda is also working well on the Island and he ended the week in third overall with the time he set on Monday evening, 122.60mph.
Speaking on Friday evening, upon the completion of practice, John said:
“It’s taken us a bit of time to get the Superbike working to my liking but with losing two nights practice due to bad weather that’s to be expected. It’s also a brand new model and we’ve got no previous data to use so we’ve had to explore all of the options before finding the optimum set up. We went the wrong way on Thursday and that led to a few stability issues but Dunlop gave us a different tyre to use and that, combined with further changes to the set up, allowed us to go fastest tonight.”
“I was beginning to panic a bit with the Superstock bike as having only done 1 lap by Thursday wasn’t ideal but I managed to get two fliers in tonight and the bike feels really good so we’re right in the ball park. The 600 was ready to race after two laps on Monday evening so things are looking good for all of the classes. No ones really been setting the world alight and we’ve all been on the back foot a bit but the weather looks like it has turned for the better so fingers crossed we can get a good, dry race tomorrow.”
The 6-lap Dainese Superbike race gets the festival underway at 12.00pm tomorrow.
Practice for the 2008 Isle of Man TT Races got underway this evening and after a 20 minute delay to proceedings, due to signage around the course being completed, the honour of leading off the line fell to two of the newcomers, Jamie Robinson (Padgett’s Manx Gas Racing Honda) and James Hillier (Martin Bullock Suzuki). The duo were led around by John Barton, one of the rider liaison officers with dry and sunny weather ensuring a good session could be completed. Riders were warned of a lack of adhesion at Snugborough but general track conditions were favourable.
At 6.56pm, it was the time of the leading solo riders to start their race preparations in earnest and Guy Martin (Hydrex Bike Animal Honda) and Cameron Donald (Relentless by TAS Suzuki) were the first pairing away followed by Bruce Anstey and Adrian Archibald. They were followed in quick succession by Ian Hutchinson, Gary Johnson, John McGuinness and Carl Rennie with Martin, Anstey, Hutchinson, McGuinness and Ian Lougher just some of the riders to go out on their Superbike machines. Steve Plater, Mark Parrett and Chris Palmer were out on their Supersport machines whilst Keith Amor and John Burrows were aboard their Superstock bikes.
Robinson and Hillier were, naturally, the first two to complete the lap with Hillier enthusing about the course upon his return to the pits: ‘Unbelievable, what a buzz – I kept looking over my shoulder to see if the police were chasing us!’
Martin and Archibald were first of the established competitors through the start and finish and carried on for another lap whilst many riders called in to make a few changes before heading back out for a couple more laps. The general consensus was that conditions all around the course were good and it was just great to be back – after a year away, they were all itching to get going and used the session to feel their way back in to the 37 and ¾ miles. Despite the delay at the start of the session, the riders were able to get in 3 full laps of the course and should have made good progress with their set-up.
At 8.00pm it was the turn of the F2 Sidecars and they were lead away by
reigning World Champions Tim Reeves and Patrick Farrance who had just flown
in from Donington Park , where they qualified on pole for the opening round
of this year's Championship. Roy Hanks, competing in his 43rd TT, and Dave Wells were the escort for the newcomers with other crews following them including Mark Brown/David Brown, Camiel Mellegers/Simone van Berckel and Geoff Smale/Lee Barrett.
Twenty minutes later the established competitors were given the all clear
sign and it was Dave Molynuex and Dan Sayle who got away first on their DMR
Suzuki followed by Nick Crowe/Mark Cox (LCR Honda), John Holden/Andy Winkle
(LCR Suzuki), Phil Dongworth/Stu Castles (Ireson Honda), Gary Bryan/Robert
Bell (Baker Yamaha), Simon Neary/Jamie Winn (Baker Suzuki) and Tony
Elmer/Darren Marshall (Ireson Yamaha). Klaus Klaffenbock and Christian
Parzer were also amongst the first few crews out on the course with the 2001
World Champion now competing in the colours of Padgett's Manx Gas Racing.
Crowe was first to complete a lap having overhauled Moly out on the circuit
but, whilst he pulled in, Moly continued for another lap. Holden also pulled
in and stated a few adjustments were required for the suspension with
conditions still good everywhere despite the fading light. Bryan, Dongworth
and Greg Lambert all carried on for another lap while Neary was another to
briefly make a few changes before carrying on again.
MARTIN SETS THE PACE IN FIRST TIMED PRACTICE AT 2008 IOM TT RACES
Monday evening’s practice session was held in dry, bright conditions but with strong winds all over the Island , caution still had to be exercised by all of the competitors with the 32nd milestone, in particular, being singled out as an area to watch. Just like Saturday, it was Guy Martin and Cameron Donald who led the field away on their Superbikes and James McBride and Carl Rennie, Ryan Farquhar and Conor Cummins, and Adrian Archibald and Bruce Anstey followed them in quick succession. All were Superbike mounted with the exception of Cummins who opted for his Supersport machine whilst Keith Amor and Chris Palmer also took out their 600cc mounts.
One man who was having problems was Ian Hutchinson and his R6 Yamaha caught fire in the holding area before the session had even begun. The Bingley rider was clearly unsettled but he eventually went out although he was again out of luck, pulling off the course at the Cronk y Voddy and making his way back to the Grandstand. He went out on his Superstock bike whilst his teammate Steve Plater also had problems although he did make it to Cronk ny Mona before the gremlins struck.
The first man back at the Grandstand was again Martin and with a lap of 124.81mph he had opened up a small gap over Donald who wasn’t far behind at 124.51mph. Anstey and Archibald also completed their lap in close formation lapping at 124.57mph and 124.35mph respectively whilst John McGuinness took his Padgett’s Honda around at 124.26mph. Martin pulled in to jump on his 600cc Honda but only got as far as the end of pit lane when he encountered problems and a quick change saw him out on his Superstock machine.
The lap speeds increased on the second lap and it was McGuinness who upped the ante lapping at 125.96mph but it was close at the top with Archibald (125.86), Donald (125.82) and Anstey (125.77) only fractions behind whilst Ryan Farquhar posted an impressive lap of 125.35mph, not too far off his best ever lap around the Mountain Course. Dan Stewart, Gary Johnson and Ian Lougher lapped above 123mph on their Superbikes whilst Les Shand put in a lap of 121.37mph on his Superstock Yamaha.
With conditions good, the riders were keen to get in as many laps as possible on all of their machines and McGuinness set the fastest Supersport lap of the evening at 122.30mph ahead of Cummins (121.49mph), Hutchinson (120.36) and Stewart (119.95). Swedish rider Mats Nilsson looked fast at 119.82mph whilst Plater was also looking strong on the AIM R6 Yamaha with a speed of 119.78mph.
In the Superstock class it was that man Anstey again who went to the top of the tree with a speed of 125.94mph, faster than his earlier Superbike time, whilst Martin was again going well at 124.08mph. Donald was third at 123.29mph with James McBride in fourth at 122.12. However, the Kettering man was involved in a high-speed incident at Gorse Lea in the final minutes of the session. He was taken to Nobles Hospital and is described as having major fractures. Angelo Conti was described as having a leg injury after an incident at the 33rd.
With riders clearly held up by the incident, the majority of positions remained the same but Martin had been ahead on the road and he went to the top of the Superbike class with a final lap of 126.02mph.
Meanwhile, the two newcomers, James Hillier and Jamie Robinson, were steadily improving lapping at 110.29mph and 109.06mph respectively.
With McBride’s accident having occurred, there was obviously debris to be cleared and, subsequently, the F2 sidecars lost half of their session, eventually getting underway at just after 8.25pm. Nick Crowe and Mark Cox again set the pace at 112.85mph on their LCR Honda whilst the Suzuki powered outfit of John Holden and Andy Winkle wasn’t too far behind at 111mph. Klaus Klaffenbock and Christina Parzer again looked strong at 109.13mph just ahead of Simon Neary/Jamie Winn (108.83) and Phil Dongworth/Stu Castles (108.05).
Tim Reeves and Patrick Farrance, meanwhile, showed their world championship class with a lap of 103.71mph to clearly mark them as one to watch and fellow newcomers Mark and David Brown were also impressive at 100.87mph.
Dave Molyneux and Dan Sayle encountered a few problems and could only post a lap of 107.52mph whilst Steve Norbury and Rick Long also circulated relatively slowly at 101.03mph.
With the 30-minute delay, the chairs were only able to manage one lap and they will be hoping the fine weather remains for tomorrow evening’s session.
Tuesday 27/5/08
only 5 riders went out on a wet IOM TT race course.
POOR CONDITIONS ON IOM LEAD TO LIMITED PRACTICE SESSION
Despite persistent rain and low cloud covering the Island during Tuesday, the evening’s practice went session ahead but such were the conditions only six solo riders ventured out on to the circuit. The rain that had been falling during the day finally stopped and the cloud lifted sufficiently on the Mountain for the practice to commence at 7pm but none of the top 30 riders left the confines of their awnings or motorhomes so it was left to veteran campaigners Alan ‘Bud’ Jackson and David Madsen-Mygdal to set off down Glencrutchery Road first.
They were followed by Antonio Maeso, James Edmeades, who was having his first lap of the TT08 festival having competed in the KTM Super Duke Series at Donington Park on Bank Holiday Monday, John Barton and Alessio Corradi. For the latterly named, it was certainly a baptism of fire as the Italian newcomer got his first taste of the Mountain Circuit on a closed road.
The severity of the conditions could be seen in the lap times and it was Madsen-Mygdal who had the honour of topping the timesheets at 87.25mph, some 27mph down on his best lap the previous evening! He was followed by Jackson (84.30), Edmeades (82.49), Corradi (79.97), Barton (79.92) and Maeso (76.16) with all six riders limited to just one lap.
Having had their session truncated by James McBride’s unfortunate accident the evening before, the F2 sidecars were given a full, hour long session and, unlike their solo counterparts, a vastly higher proportion of crews took to the line with almost 40 outfits taking part in the session.
Tim Reeves and Patrick Farrance utilized the session to its fullest, getting in a full quota of 3 laps thus increasing their knowledge further and the reigning World Champions ended up second on the night with a speed of 94.00mph. Steve Coombes and Gary Partridge also put in 3 laps of the course and they were fastest at 95.11mph.
Roy Hanks and Dave Wells were first to complete a lap but a combination of the weather and a puncture kept their speed down to 88.74mph. They eventually went back out to slot into fifth place overall on 93.25mph, just behind Phil Dongworth/Stu Castles (93.87) and Keith Walters/Alun Thomas (93.59).
Nick Crowe and Steve Norbury had very sedate outings, lapping at 82.89mph and 73.89mph respectively, whilst, like Monday evening, a number of the crews encountered problems during the course of the session with Peter Farrelly/Jason Miller, Mike Roscher/Michael Hildebrand and Wal Saunders/Eddy Kiff all being reported as having stopped out on the course.
Empty Paddock yesterday due to bad weather on the TT course.
TT preparation continues on in preparation for the 1st race on Saturday.
The famous TT course
PERFECT PRACTICE CONDITIONS SEE LEADING CONTENDERS POST FAST TIMES AT THURSAY’S IOM TT RACES PRACTICE
Michael Dunlop back on the Island to practice for this years TT races.
After two days of miserable weather, the sunshine returned to the Isle of Man and Thursday evening’s practice session was held in almost perfect conditions. A few damp patches remained under the trees after two days of rain and riders were also warned off mist in the Waterworks section. However, it was a civilian incident in the Ballaugh area that prevented the action getting underway on time and it was 6.41pm when the first riders blasted off the line, Ryan Farquhar and Cameron Donald leading the field away.
As per Monday evening, the majority of riders were Superbike mounted with Farquhar being the main exception on his 600cc Kawasaki and it was again Guy Martin who completed the first lap at a speed of 126.191mph. The Suzuki pairing of Bruce Anstey and Adrian Archibald were both over 125mph whilst John McGuinness, who had made a number of changes to the Padgett’s Honda Fireblade, was down the order at 121.58mph. Dan Stewart again impressed at 123.95mph on his Superstock machine with Ian Hutchinson, Carl Rennie, Gary Johnson and Ian Lougher also lapping above 122mph.
Second time around and the speeds increased with Martin upping his pace to 127.08mph, Anstey 126.47mph and Donald 126.07mph. Meanwhile, Farquhar was setting the pace in the 600’s at 122.03mph with impressive Swede Mats Nilsson posting his first ever 120mph lap at 120.09mph.
The pits were a hive of activity with riders frequently calling in to either make changes or swap machines but a number of riders were out of luck on the circuit with Michael Dunlop, Tim Poole and Paul Hunt all reported as having stopped. Davy Morgan only got as far as the end of pit lane before problems struck and he had to make a quick switch to his Superstock machine in order to get his session started.
McGuinness did three laps on his Superbike as he sought to get the set up more to his liking and he set a lap of 126.69mph on his final lap to slot into second overall behind Martin. One of the stars of the evening though was Farquhar who took his Superstock machine around at 126.65mph, comfortably quicker than his personal best of 125.74mph set back in 2005. Anstey’s earlier lap saw him finish 4th on the leaderboard with Hutchinson (126.29mph) also making strides forward with the R1 Yamaha.
Farquhar’s lap saw him top the Superstock class by a considerable margin ahead of Martin (124.59), Stewart (123.59), Archibald (122.99), Johnson (122.98) and Conor Cummins (122.47).
In the Supersport class, a final lap of 122.65mph saw Anstey top the timesheets and he led the way from Farquhar (122.03), Plater (121.84), Keith Amor (121.62), Donald (120.85) and Ian Lougher (120.09). Meanwhile, the two newcomers were again impressing greatly with Jamie Robinson upping his speeds to 114.39mph and James Hillier only fractions behind at 114.26mph.
After their wet session on Tuesday evening, the F2 Sidecars finally got a decent run and the 55-minute session saw all crews take advantage of the good conditions with some fast laps being posted. Dave Molyneux and Dan Sayle look to have firmly got to grips with their Suzuki powered outfit and after an opening lap of 114.95mph, they went slightly quicker second time around at 115.06mph.
Nick Crowe and Mark Cox also put in two laps but it was their opening speed of 112.94mph that saw them end up in second with Klaus Klaffenbock and Christian Parzer one place back at 111.46mph. John Holden/Andy Winkle (111.07mph), Steve Norbury/Rick Long (109.90) and Phil Dongworth/Stu Castles (109.64) completed the top six whilst Tim Reeves and Patrick Farrance lapped at a brilliant 107.95mph on their third lap to end the session in 9th.
Phil Wain
PRESS RELEASE - John McGuinness
McGuinness goes fastest in TT practice
John McGuinness saved the best until last in practice week for the 2008 Isle of Man TT Races, rocketing to the top of the Superbike times with a lap of 128.61mph in Friday evening’s final session. The Morecambe man, riding the Padgett’s Manx Gas Racing Honda, had endured a few handling issues during the course of the week and, with Tuesday and Wednesday evening’s practice having been lost to poor weather, it was vital that he found a good setting heading into the first race on Saturday.
Thursday evening saw him go the wrong way with the adjustments to the front end of the machine but the necessary changes were made on Friday and, after an opening lap of 127.38mph, he went quickest for the week on his second lap with his 128mph+ lap. This puts him in great shape going into tomorrow’s opening 6-lap Superbike race.
He was equally impressive in his other two classes and although he didn’t get to do a lap on the Superstock machine until Thursday evening, he was able to go second fastest overall with a lap of 126.56mph on Friday evening. His regular 600cc Padgett’s Honda is also working well on the Island and he ended the week in third overall with the time he set on Monday evening, 122.60mph.
Speaking on Friday evening, upon the completion of practice, John said:
“It’s taken us a bit of time to get the Superbike working to my liking but with losing two nights practice due to bad weather that’s to be expected. It’s also a brand new model and we’ve got no previous data to use so we’ve had to explore all of the options before finding the optimum set up. We went the wrong way on Thursday and that led to a few stability issues but Dunlop gave us a different tyre to use and that, combined with further changes to the set up, allowed us to go fastest tonight.”
“I was beginning to panic a bit with the Superstock bike as having only done 1 lap by Thursday wasn’t ideal but I managed to get two fliers in tonight and the bike feels really good so we’re right in the ball park. The 600 was ready to race after two laps on Monday evening so things are looking good for all of the classes. No ones really been setting the world alight and we’ve all been on the back foot a bit but the weather looks like it has turned for the better so fingers crossed we can get a good, dry race tomorrow.”
The 6-lap Dainese Superbike race gets the festival underway at 12.00pm tomorrow.
