Finnegan has work to do
Martin Finnegan says there is a lot of hard work to do before the Centenary TT.
However, the 26-year-old believes he will be ‘there or thereabouts’ in the Isle of Man.
During TT 2006, Finnegan, of Lusk, suffered machine problems. He is hoping reliability issues will be behind him when the TT gets under way on May 26.
However, on Saturday, he suffered ‘a nightmare’ at the North West 200.
He concentrated on the Superbike and Superstock events, but at the end of the red flag-interrupted first Superbike event Finnegan and his Klaffi Honda were down in 14th place.
There were high hopes for the Superstock event after the MV Agusta ran well during practice.
However, Finnegan was left stranded in the middle of the grid when his machine suffered technical problems at the start. It was a frightening moment as the other motorcycles roared past, but, fortunately, all the riders avoided him.
In his final race of the day, the second Superbike event, he managed a 10th place.
Finnegan said:
‘I just don’t seem to have any luck at this place. To be fair, it’s been a bit of a nightmare and we’ve got a lot of hard work to do before the TT and it’s going to be a very busy time for us!’
‘We’re lacking a bit of top speed with the Superbike, for some strange reason, so we’ll be looking to get that put right, whilst it was very disappointing to be out of the Superstock race before it had even begun.’
‘It was just one of those things though, and could have happened to anyone at
any time, but the bike was flying in practice so I’m reasonably confident we’ll be there or thereabouts with it at the TT.’
‘Let’s hope it’s a case of getting our bad luck out of the way here and having a good time at the TT. The team have been working very hard and I’m sure we’ll be challenging in all of the races at the Isle of Man.’
In the Isle of Man Finnegan is set to compete in the Bennetts Superbike TT, Pokerstars Supersport TT and Senior TT, sponsored by Pokerstars, on Klaffi Hondas and ride the 1,000cc MV Agusta in the Pokerstars Superstock TT.
Meanwhile Michael Rutter, who is returning to the Isle of Man TT after a seven year absence, believes he could face a tough time around the Mountain Circuit.
Rutter, who has one TT win to his name, managed two third places for the ISILON MSS Discovery Kawasaki team in the Superbike and Supersport classes at the North West.
The 34-year-old had taken pole for the Superbike race, but admitted he knew he would struggle.
Rutter said:
‘Despite pole position, I didn’t expect the podium on the Superbike to be honest, as we were a bit down on speed and it was hard work as everyone out there was on it, but we’ll take the results!’
Looking ahead to the TT, Rutter added:
‘On the positive side, the handling on both bikes is fantastic – we just need that bit more mid-range. Looking forward to the Isle of Man, this deficiency could prove tough, but, then again, with the break-neck pace of races in the BSB and now the North West, we’ve not had time to address them.’
‘Hopefully we can now. The whole team deserves these rostrums.’
Additional reporting:
Phil Wain