Wednesday evening saw a number of the major contenders run into trouble - Michael Dunlop stopped at Ginger Hall, Ryan Farquhar pulled in at Sulby for a spot of overheating before proceeding, John McGuinness stopped at the Mountain Box and Ian Lougher retired at the Creg.

McGuinness tried some different tyre compounds and suspension settings last night on the Superbike which didn't work so he's going to go back to Tuesday's settings tonight. He went out on the stocker but the clutch was slipping so pulled in straightaway, then went out on the 600 but that started misfiring at Ramsey so he pulled in at the Bunglow before carrying on (hence the 96mph lap). By the time he got back to the pits, the clutch had been sorted on the stocker so he went back out and did 123mph+.

Team-mate Keith Amor will sit out this evening's session after bashing the AC joint in his shoulder. The Scot had a slow-speed off at Quarterbridge. He Tweeted: "The specialist has seen me and said have a day off and I can ride on friday so fingers crossed!"

William Dunlop was delighted to have posted his best ever lap of the Mountain Course - 125.872mph - but admitted 'It was a great lap and everything felt really comfortable but I'm not quite sure where I'm going to find the other 5mph from!"

Brother Michael admitted to be suffering a number of handling issues with the new ZX-10 Superbike but when asked how he was going to overcome them, his answer was simple ' "keep it flat out."

McGuinness, Gary Johnson and Keith Amor tried a new tyre combination but all three went slower.

Newcomer Simon Andrews almost broke the 120mph barrier on his third night of practice, with a best lap of 119.485mph, and was delighted with his progress. "That was a wicked lap and real good fun. The BMW is handling like a dream and it's a real pleasure to ride but we keep running out of petrol on the second lap. It died out of both the Creg and Governors so we need to sort that out. The only problem I had was with the low sun and that makes it tricky to see where you're going." Straight down the sliproad at Signpost, Si...

Conor Cummins is heading for Jurby airfield today to see if he can cure his Superbike's 'problem' with some straight-line testing.

Klaus Klaffenbock and Daniel Sayle were quickest in the sidecar class but Sayle reported there was a considerable amount of Manx wildlife out on the course - "There's birds flying around and all sorts, I saw some geese on the track at one point!"

John Holden, whose Suzuki engine was running too lean on Tuesday evening, went too far the other way on Wednesday and found it to be running too rich.