The final practice session for the 2008 Isle of Man TT Races
was held in perfect conditions and, after its almost
expected delay, this time ten minutes, the flag dropped at
6.30pm. Riders were warned of damp patches through Quarry
Bends although the majority later reported that all was well
whilst flies were again causing their own unique problems
for riders’ visibility.
Guy Martin’s Hydrex Bike Animal Honda team had him well to
the fore once more and he set off first alongside Keith Amor
with Gary Carswell, Carl Rennie, Ryan Farquhar and Steve
Plater following them in quick succession. Farquhar was the
only leading contender to go out on his 600 first of all
whilst Plater was hoping to have cured his handling issues
that had affected him the night before. John McGuinness was
the 12th man away and had made a number of changes to the
front end of his machine having also had some stability
issues on Thursday.
Martin’s opening lap of 127.195mph saw him briefly fastest
before McGuinness flashed across the line about a minute
later at 127.383mph. Ian Hutchinson was also running well at
126.959mph with Conor Cummins, Bruce Anstey, Cameron Donald,
Ian Lougher and Dan Stewart all going above 124mph. Second
time around though the speeds increased and the changes that
McGuinness had made were clearly to his liking as he went
fastest at 128.61mph. Donald was right on his exhaust pipes
as they completed the lap and he went second at 128.44mph
with teammate Anstey in third at 127.82mph. Martin also went
quicker, at 127.77mph, but was ultimately shuffled back to
fourth.
Adrian Archibald, who had to stop on his opening lap to make
adjustments, put in a late charge to go sixth with a lap of
126.33mph whilst Gary Johnson was also impressing at
125.61mph. Plater’s opening lap was 117.43mph and he only
got as far as Kirk Michael on his second lap before pulling
off the course. He got back to the paddock in time to take
his Superstock machine out for a lap.
Jamie Robinson
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Fast laps were also the order of the day in the Superstock
class and it was that man McGuinness who again set the pace
despite only having done one lap on the machine prior to
this evening. He put in two 125mph+ laps to go fastest on
the night at 126.56mph. Anstey and Donald were almost
inseparable at 125.77 and 125.71 with Johnson, only in his
second year on the Island, in top form at 125.02mph. Carl
Rennie and Les Shand completed the top six with speeds of
124.51mph and 124.24mph respectively, the two privateers
both riding strongly.
As a result of all the big bike activity, most riders only
put in one lap on their 600cc machine but it was Farquhar,
with only two bikes to concentrate on, who utilized the time
to his advantage with a lap of 122.91mph. Anstey squeezed a
final lap in to go second at 122.87mph with McGuinness and
Martin doing the same at 121.51 and 121.45, the latter named
finally getting a good run on the middleweight machine.
Archibald and Johnson rounded out the top six at 121.18 and
121.13 whilst privateer Les Shand was impressive at
120.96mph. James Hillier and Jamie Robinson again made good
progress upping their speeds to 116.43 and 115.58
respectively.
The F2 Sidecars again had a good, full session and, on the
eve of their first race, a number of the drivers used the
time to run in their race engines in preparation for the
first 3-lap race. Dave Molyneux and Klaus Klaffenbock were
two such drivers and this could be seen in their relatively
slow lap speeds of 13mph and 107mph.
Nick Crowe and Mark Cox put in two flying laps to go fastest
for the week at 115.53 whilst John Holden and Andy Winkle
were also going well at 113.11mph. They were followed by
Simon Neary/Jamie Winn (111.22), Steve Norbury/Rick Long
(110.78) and Dougie Wright/Stuart Bond (110.19), the last
named putting in his first ever 110mph+ lap.
However, the talk of the night was again reigning World
Champions Tim Reeves and Patrick Farrance who showed their
class with a brilliant lap of 110.36mph to go fifth fastest
and they must surely have a great chance of stepping on to
the podium.
Tim Reeves and Patrick Farrance
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Les Shand was involved in an incident at Sulby Bridge but
was seen by a travelling marshal and reported no serious
injury.
With good weather forecast for the next five days, all is
set for some terrific racing and the action kicks off at
12.00pm tomorrow with the 6-lap Dainese Superbike race. This
is followed at 3.15pm with the 3-lap Sure Mobile F2 Sidecar
race.
Phil Wain
Picture's courtesy of
Stephen Davison @ Pacemaker press Intl
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