More than 60 racers will line-up for the Lightweight race at the 2013 Isle of Man TT fuelled by Monster Energy, an increase compared with last year’s grid.
John McGuinness and Conor Cummins are among the stars to have confirmed their entries.
The Lightweight race was re-introduced last year, bringing SuperTwins to the Mountain course, and the winner was Ryan Farquhar, who had championed the class.
He retired in 2012, ensuring their will be a new name on the winner’s trophy at the end of the 2013 running.
However, lap record holder Michael Rutter and James Hillier, who finished runner-up, will both start the race.
Hillier, as with the other TT race classes, will again be going off at number 1, followed by Cameron Donald and McGuinness, but the first change comes at number 4 where KMR Kawasaki’s Jamie Hamilton, last year’s winner of the Newcomers Trophy, will start.
Russ Mountford, fifth in the corresponding race in 2012, goes at 5 as he again looks to upset the established order in the class while Michael Dunlop and Gary Johnson will again be at numbers 6 and 7 respectively.
Last year’s third placed finisher Rutter will be at number 8 on another of Farquhar’s KMR Kawasakis, with Ivan Lintin, like Mountford, given a top 10 start number at 9 on the back of his result last year.
Cummins is an intriguing entry at number 10, but is another potential race winner.
Chris Palmer will be back on the TT start line at number 11, just ahead of Dan Kneen and Dan Cooper, with Dean Harrison, Ian Lougher and David Johnson again at 14, 15 and 16 respectively, with Australian Johnson on the Chinese WK machine, the first appearance by a Chinese bike.
Dave Moffitt (17), Ben Wylie (18), Olie Linsdell (19) and Lee Johnston (20) complete the Lightweight top 20.
Isle of Man Government TT and Motorsport Manager Paul Phillips said:
“The class goes from strength to strength after last year's inaugural race and the entries from John and Conor are only going to increase the competition at the front of the field.”
“It's a great entry level race and there are very few machine advantages on the grid which gives all the competitors a real chance of a TT title or at least getting on the podium or winning a replica.”