Isle of Man TT winner Ryan Farquhar was straight on the pace when practice for the Manx Grand Prix finally got underway in earnest on Tuesday evening.
The session scheduled for Saturday was cancelled due to rain, and only the newcomers’ guided lap was possible during Monday evening’s practice.
A welcome break in the poor weather meant Tuesday’s session could go ahead, although the start was delayed while first animal feed was removed from the road at Ballig and a parked car moved in Ramsey.
At 6.30pm the Junior and Senior classes were away from the TT Grandstand in Douglas.
As James McCullagh (Junior 3) and Ryan McCay (Junior 6) led the field away, Michael Weldon’s Yamaha R6 caught fire in Pit Lane. The blaze was quickly extinguished and the machine pushed away for further investigation.
After the Junior and Senior competitors had all completed one lap, the Speed Controlled Newcomers were sent on their way for one lap.
That was followed the Classics, Lightweight and Ultra Lightweight riders.
First to complete a lap was McCay on his Junior Suzuki, lapping at 110.373mph. He went on to set the fastest lap of the evening, a time of 19 minutes 43.33 seconds and an average speed of 114.785mph on his 600cc Suzuki Junior machine.
Fastest in the Senior MGP class was Adam Barclay with a lap of 19m 51.32s, an average speed of 114.014mph. Brian Mateer was quickest in the Lightweight on his 249cc Yamaha, at 106.855mph, and in the Ultra Lightweight MGP, Kirk Farrow topped the leader board on his 400cc Honda with an average speed of 99.727mph.
The Newcomers A Class was topped by Ryan Kneen on his 600cc Suzuki, with a time of 21m 57.33s and average speed of 103.109mph, while in the Newcomers C class, it was Ian Whitlow who headed the field, at an average speed of 96.282mph.
Farquhar, who heads the Duke Road Race Rankings this year, put in the fastest time in the Classic categories. Last year’s winner took the Paton round the Mountain course at an average speed of 101.87mph, a time of 22m 13.26s.
The Junior class was topped by Roy Richardson, in a time of 22m 53.86s and average speed of 98.866mph, while Ewan Hamilton, winner last year of the Lightweight Classic, was quickest at an average speed of 88.316mph and lap time of 25m 37.98s.
The chequered flag came out at 8.10pm, bringing the first full session to a close.
There were fours incidents reported during the session - Andrew Neil came off his Senior machine at the 27th milestone and has injured his left hand, Doug Snow came off his Classic machine at Alpine and has an ankle injury, fellow Classic rider Dean Martin came off at Governor’s Bridge but was OK, and Paul Walker, who came off at Governor’s, also escaped injury.