Three-time World Sidecar Champion Tim Reeves get his assault on the 2011 Isle of Man TT Races underway on Monday evening and although conditions were far from ideal around the Mountain Course, the Kent driver was pleased to get his first two laps completed. The laps were, of course, Tim's first with passenger Gregory Cluze and the Frenchman has already lapped quicker than what he did on his debut with German driver Mike Roscher 12 months ago.

Sunshine during the day gave way to cloud by the time the roads closed and although it was dry at the start and finish, roads around the course were damp with the section from Glen Helen to Ramsey particularly affected.

The sidecars were first out on the course and Reeves and Cluze were the third pairing to leave the line just after Simon Neary/Jason Crowe and Klaus Klaffenbock/Daniel Sayle but the conditions of the course could be seen in the relatively slow lap times and Reeves' first lap was down at 101.711mph.

However, he was able to improve his pace to 105.576mph to go fifth quickest on the night - and this was despite hitting a pheasant at Kerromoar.

Speaking afterwards, Reeves said; "We were just steady away tonight and with it being my first time with Greg here we just wanted to get dialled in. Conditions were pretty slippy out there so I just cruised round the first lap, came in to make a few adjustments and then went out for another lap.

"The roads weren't quite as wet second time around but I got held up all the way from Douglas Road Corner to Rhencullen and again at Governor's Bridge, which probably lost us about 30-40 seconds but I'm not bothered about the lap times yet, it was just a case of getting out there and getting some miles in. That's already Greg's best lap here so it's job done so far. The bike felt strong so once we get the set-up fine tuned, we'll look to push on."