Young pup Josh Daley enjoyed another excellent campaign at the Isle of Man Classic TT races over the Bank Holiday weekend when he finished in an impressive 14th place in Monday’s Superbike race.

 
Riding the Pete Beale YZF750 Yamaha, practice week around the 37.73-mile Mountain Course proved to be a challenging affair for all of the competitors as poor weather disrupted the majority of the sessions and when Josh did get out on track, a number of fuel issues meant the 21-year old wasn’t able to show his true pace or potential.
 
However, the team made a few modifications to the fuel tank and with the weather improving the final two practice sessions on Friday and Saturday enabled him to improve his speeds considerably. Indeed, a lap on Friday evening of 114.550mph placed him 24th quickest on the practice leaderboard but he went quicker still on Saturday with a lap of 116.976mph which moved him up to 21st.
 
That meant he started the four-lap race from 23rd on the grid although the race was delayed by four hours due to mist but when it finally got underway, an opening lap of 114.924mph saw Josh maintain his starting position of 23rd.
 
Second time around, he upped his pace to 115.806mph and that enabled him to move up to 21st position when he came into the pits to refuel at the end of the lap. An excellent pit stop by the team helped move him up another position but the final 37.73 miles proved to be his best and with a speed of 117.285mph, he jumped up the order to finish in an eventual 14th place and win another bronze replica.
 
“Practice week was initially quite difficult for us as we couldn’t get the bike to do two laps and I kept running out of fuel but we blew the tank out and it did the trick as the bike was faultless during the race, said Daley, through his hair.

"The Yamaha’s a bit quicker than the Kawasakis I’ve previously ridden whilst it also handled better so it proved to be a good decision to change machine for this year.
 
“I had a bit of a slow start to the race, slower than I would have liked, and I was perhaps trying a bit too hard but I gradually got into my rhythm and really enjoyed the race, particularly the last two laps.

"I felt a lot stronger on the bike and I’m over the moon to have finished in 14th place and lap at more than 117mph to win another bronze replica.”