Misfire forces Amor's Dainese Superbike retirement
A misfire forced Keith Amor out of the opening race of the 2009 Isle of Man TT.
The Falkirk rider had been hoping for a strong result in Monday’s Dainese Superbike TT, and was in eighth place on his Wilson Craig Honda when he retired at Ballacraine on lap three.
After a strong practice week, Amor was hoping to build on his performances around the Mountain course and a fine opening lap of 126.555mph, a personal best, put him eighth.
After overhauling Dan Stewart, who had started 10 seconds in front of him, Amor tried to make use of the clear road ahead to climb the leaderboard. However on lap two his superbike engine developed a misfire, forcing him to ease off on the way into the pits.
It was a dramatic stop as Amor overshot the 'stop-box' and incurred a 10 second penalty. He maintained eighth place, but as he started lap three it was clear the bike was in trouble and he retired at Ballacraine.
Amor said:
‘I don't quite know what the problem was at the moment. It was either the fuel pump or a sensor that caused the bike to start missing but at the beginning of the second lap the bike just started to burble along.’
‘I thought I was running out of fuel so eased off towards the end of the lap, but I still managed to overshoot the stop box by about 50 yards! I got going again, but it started coughing again just a couple of miles later so I parked up at Ballacraine.’
‘It's a disappointing start to race week but I've got four more chances left so I'll be keeping everything crossed that our bad luck is out of the way.’