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.
John McGuinness TT Weather Man
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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.
James Edmeades
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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.
Phil Wain
Nick Crowe and Mark Cox
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Picture's provided by
Stephen Davison @ Pacemaker press Intl
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