With heavy rain on the Isle of Man in mid afternoon, Clerk of the Course Phil Taubman decided to make Thursday night’s Classic TT Qualifying on the Isle of Man an untimed session
By the time the riders got underway shortly after 6.20pm, the roads were reported as drying quickly but the riders were still warned to expect damp patches under the trees and possible showers during the session.
The F1, F2 and 350cc machines were given the night off as they have an extended practice scheduled as part of Saturday’s Race day, so the session gave riders the chance to focus on their 500cc machines.
Manx Radio’s Chris Palmer, who won last year’s 350 and F2 Classic TT races, said that many of the riders would opt to miss the session unless they needed to qualify or wanted to carry out suspension or gearing checks, bed tyres in or stretch chains. That was reflected in the fact that only around 250 bikes went through scrutineering across both the Classic TT and Manx Grand Prix, as opposed to the 387 through on Monday night’s session.
Riders who took the opportunity to go out included Bruce Anstey on his McIntosh Norton, Michael Rutter on the G50 Matchless, Specialised Glazing Solutions Molnar Manx Riders Michael Dunlop and Lee Johnston and Willliam Dunlop on the Davies Motorsport Honda. Mick Godfrey, a replacement for the injured John Barton on the Dunnell Racing Norton, also took the opportunity to get some laps under his belt.
Although the session was untimed, the Sulby speed trap times were recorded with William Dunlop posting the fastest of the session at 135.30mph from Michael Rutter (134.76) – times that were noticeably down on the ones recorded earlier in the week.
With no times recorded from this evening’s session, the Patons of Ryan Farquhar (111.102), John McGuinness (109.846) and Ian Lougher (109.282) set earlier in the week top the board with only tomorrow’s final qualifying session ahead of Saturday’s Bennetts 500cc Race.
Manx Grand Prix Qualifying was also deemed an untimed session
By the time the riders got underway shortly after 6.20pm, the roads were reported as drying quickly but the riders were still warned to expect damp patches under the trees and possible showers during the session.
The F1, F2 and 350cc machines were given the night off as they have an extended practice scheduled as part of Saturday’s Race day, so the session gave riders the chance to focus on their 500cc machines.
Riders who took the opportunity to go out included Andy Soar, Peter Symes, Paul Smyth and Gavin Lupton on their Senior machines, Andrew Farrell, Dean Roberts and Michael Moulai on their Junior machines, Stuart Garton on his SuperTwin and Mick Jordan on his Lightweight bike. Newcomers who took the opportunity for additional laps included fastest qualifier to date Malachi Mitchell Thomas, who recorded 163.28 through the Sulby speed trap, marginally slower than Andrew Farrells 167.35mph which was the fastest recorded time on the night.
With no times recorded from this evening’s session, Michael Moulai’s 117.274 set in Wednesday’s qualifying remains the fastest Junior time of the week, slightly ahead of Andy Lawson’s 116.332 which is the fastest Senior qualifying time. Mick Jordan’s 105.882 tops the Lightweight board with James Neesom’s 110.772 the fastest SuperTwin to date.
Malachi Mitchell-Thomas tops the Newcomer A qualifying board (112.530) with two further qualifying sessions ahead of Monday’s Newcomer A race with Dean Osborne (106.353) and French rider Lancelot Unissart (97.651) leading the B and C respectively.
Joey Dunlop Race Bike collection ready to be unveiled
The Isle of Man Government’s Department of Economic Development Motorsport Team has assembled the free paddock display of 26 bikes as part of the celebrations for the legendary Irish rider’s career. The Ballymoney man won 26 TT Races in a 24 year Mountain Course career.
This weekend also sees the paddock turning back the clock in an 80’s themed fancy dress experience on Friday 22nd August and a parade lap featuring many of Joey Dunlop’s greatest rivals on Saturday 23rd.
The bike collection, all of which have been loaned for the five-day exhibition by private collectors, spans Joey’s entire Isle of Man career and features the first bike that Joey raced at the TT – the TZ350 Yamsel Yamaha through to the last – the iconic Honda SP1.
Other TT winning bikes in the collection include Joey’s 1988 RS250R, the first 250 to achieve a sub 20 minute lap of the TT course, that represented his 12th and Honda’s 50th TT win, the RS500 that Joey won his 10th TT on in 1987 and his 1995 250 Honda, complete with the original Castrol body work.
Although Honda, the marque most closely associated with his career, dominates the collection of 26 machines, the display also features the RG500 Suzuki that he Joey rode in the 1978 TT Races, his 350 Aermacchi from his Manx Grand Prix Classic Race days, his 1980 500 Yamaha and the Yamaha Yamsel that he won his first Southern 100 on.
David Cretney, MHK, the Isle of Man Government’s Minister of Fun, who will officially open the display at 4pm today, commented: “We themed our Classic TT weekend around the decade associated with Joey, and it is a time that he was undoubtedly at the peak of his powers, but the reality, as this bike display shows, is that the man from Ballymoney made a huge impact on the Island from the moment he stepped off the boat in 1976 and in all my time associated with the event I cannot recall more popular wins than his triple in 2000 shortly before we lost him.
“It is entirely appropriate that we have the first and last bikes that he raced on the Island on display as well as a number in between and we are very grateful to everyone that has lent us bikes to pay appropriate tribute to someone who made such an enormous impact on the Island and worldwide.”
