No pressure or expectations for Conor Cummins at 2011 TT
Manxman Conor Cummins says he is heading into his ‘home’ event, the 2011 Isle of Man TT fuelled by Monster Energy, with ‘no pressure or expectations’.
After suffering massive injuries in a crash during the Senior TT in 2010, the Ramsey man has made steady progress since returning to racing earlier this year. But next week he faces his toughest test so far, riding at speed on the Mountain course.
The first practice session for the 2011 TT gets under way on Monday evening, with the first races the following Saturday.
Cummins said he is ready for the TT and is not putting pressure on himself to deliver results, just a ‘solid meeting’.
Last weekend he was back on the international road race scene with an outing at the North West 200, which was abandoned after just one race. Despite the lack of racing, Cummins said returning to the roads had been important and his track time had helped with TT preparations.
Riding the McAdoo Racing Kawasaki, Cummins secured 10th place in the Supersport 600cc race in challenging conditions. It was the only race to be completed at the North West, due to poor weather, a security alert and an oil spill.
With three rounds of the National Superstock 1000cc Championship under his belt, the return to the roads represented a new challenge for Cummins on his comeback. However, in his usual, unflustered manner, he went about his business diligently through practice. Tuesday evening saw patchy conditions around the 8.9-mile circuit so Cummins took no risks. With conditions more favourable on Thursday, he was able to increase his pace significantly.
Combined qualifying times placed him 13th (Supersport), 18th (Superbike) and 19th (Superstock), comfortably in the first wave for each class.
The Supersport 600cc race started proceedings on Saturday and a good opening lap saw Cummins maintain his starting place of 13th as he battled on the roads with Guy Martin, Lee Johnston and Luis Carreira.
A lap later, he was up to 10th and the quartet had become a trio with Carreira dropping back slightly. For the remainder of the race, Cummins sat right in the wheeltracks of Martin and Johnston and there was never more than three quarters of a second between the three, with Martin and Johnston swapping places regularly.
There was little opportunity for Cummins to make a pass, but he was happy to cross the line in 10th, only 0.408s behind 8th-placed Martin at the end of the 5-lap race.
Cummins said:
“I'm happy enough with that finish and the whole week has gone well for me. Obviously, the weather made it a bit tricky in practice and it was also my first time out on the McAdoo bikes so I just kept it safe and steady although I was quite surprised to be best placed on the Supersport machine as that's not really my best class.”
“All three bikes were working well though and I was just looking forward to getting some solid rides under my belt. Sadly, all the problems on race day put paid to that, but in the race I did have, I was really pleased with the outcome and it was good to get back into the groove of racing on the roads again.”
He added:
“Guy and Lee were swapping places out there quite a bit so I didn't want to get caught up in any of that and kept a watching brief behind them. I felt really comfortable and 10th first time back on the roads was very pleasing, to say the least.”
“The TT will, naturally, be a lot tougher, but everything's going in the right way and I'll look forward to having another good, solid meeting there.”
“There's no pressure or expectations so I'll just go and do my own thing and see where I end up.”