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MIKE HAMMONDS TT BLOG PAGES
Saturday 2nd June 2018 Superbike and Sidecar Race Day
The road closed at 11:00 am
as planned, only for the mist to roll in and an immediate
half hour delay was announced. This turned out to be a two
hour delay and the Superbike
Race eventually got under way 14:00 hours.
Dean Harrison broke the
course outright record from a standing start setting a new
time of 16 minutes 50.384 seconds, an average speed of
134.432mph; breaking the 134mph barrier for the first time.
He achieved this again on his second lap before retiring at
Sulby Crossroads on
the third. Michael Dunlop
inherited the lead and slowly eked his way into a commanding
position from Connor Cummins.
Connor lost 6 seconds to Michael at the first pit stop and
12 seconds at the second pit stop. Michael eventually
winning by a margin of 51 seconds. James Hillier brought his
Quatro Plant JG
Speedfit Kawasaki
home in third.
 Dean Harrison  Michael Dunlop  Daley Mathison
The sidecar race started at
3pm as planned on the revised schedule, John Holden and Lee
Cain setting the early pace. The race was red flagged on the
first lap due to an incident at Sky Hill involving Tony
Baker and his daughter Fiona Baker-Holden. Fortunately
neither has suffered serious injuries with Tony fracturing a
leg and Fiona suffering soft tissue damage. An inevitable
delay followed this incident.
 Tony Baker Fiona Baker-Holden
Manx Radio interrupted the
hourly news to give an update, only to say that another
update would be given in 15 minutes!! This amused the
cosmopolitan crowd at
Quarterbridge, consisting of Americans, Australians,
French, Germans, Italians, Irish, British and of course
Manx. The TT is truly
an international event.
It was decided to run the
solo and electric practice
before the re-run of the Sidecar Race at 19:00 hours. John
McGuinness did a
demonstration lap on the Norton, the first time he had put a
set of leathers on since his NW200 crash in 2017.
 John McGuinness
Twenty eight of the original
34 starters lined up on the
Glencrutchery Road, the most notable absentees were
the luckless Tony and Fiona, Lewis
Blackstock and
Patrick Rosney who
developed a mechanical issue and Estelle
Leblond with Melanie
Farnier in the chair
who had retired at Union Mills in the first race.
This time no one could live
with the Birchalls,
they bettered the old lap record on each of the three laps,
with a best lap of 19 minutes 4.353seconds, a average speed
of 118.694mph. John Holden and Lee Cain did their fastest
ever lap in topping 117mph in finishing second with Tim
Reeves and Mark Wilkes completing the rostrum positions. As
soon as the press conference was over, John dashed off to
Nobles Hospital to see how wife Fiona was recovering.
 Ben and Tom Birchall
A truly remarkable record
breaking days racing.
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