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.
Guy Martin
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John McGuinness
Picture's provided by
Stephen Davison @ Pacemaker press Intl |
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