TT riders get first laps on Superstock and Supersport Machines
The beautiful sunshine and blue skies of Saturday and Sunday at the 2013 Isle of Man TT Races fuelled by Monster Energy, gave way to darker weather on Monday with rain, strong winds and cool temperatures hitting the island.
However, by 6.50pm, the rain had stopped and conditions had improved enough for a practice session to take place. The Clerk of the Course Gary Thompson opted to run the session un-timed and revised the schedule so that only the Superstocks and Supersport machines featured. The two categories were given an hour-long session although riders were advised of challenging conditions around the TT Mountain Course.
Riders seeded 1-20 were first to go and James Hillier and Cameron Donald were first off the line, the former on his Supersport machine and the latter on a Superstock. Indeed, the majority of the riders were on the 1000cc Superstock bikes including John McGuinness, Michael Rutter, Guy Martin, Bruce Anstey and Dean Harrison.
A number of riders did opt to take the Supersport bike out first though with Gary Johnson, on the beautiful sounding MV Agusta, Dan Stewart, Dan Cooper and Ivan Lintin, Simon Andrews and William Dunlop all choosing the 600’s. Five minutes after the expected front-runners had left the line, Michael Dunlop blasted off down Glencrutchery Road on his Superstock Honda.
Although untimed, speed trap times showed speeds were down slightly, McGuinness and Donald initially the quickest at 174mph before Dan Kneen upped the pace to 182mph.
Most of the riders continued through for two straight laps although a number did pull in to either make adjustments or swap machines, Hillier, William Dunlop, Harrison, Cooper and Andrews amongst them. Conditions remained cool whilst swirling mist on the Mountain also meant visibility was an issue.
The session also saw the historic first lap by a Chinese rider On Jai who, having been unable to leave the line with a mechanical fault on Saturday’s speed controlled lap, went out on his guided lap with TT rider liaison officer Richard Quayle.
The session was brought to an end at around 7.30pm with a red flag incident at Ballacrye and was abandoned at around 8.15pm.