This year's blue riband Senior TT is up in the air after Isle of Man TT organisers announced major delay right into the evening before confirming it won't be rescheduled for Sunday.

The encounter - which marks the conclusion of the Isle of Man TT festival - is considered the centrepiece of the event's ten races across five classes.

However, persistent weather woes forced organisers to twice delay the start of the race having originally planned to get it underway at 10.45am.

According to a statement, the Senior TT is now set to start at 19.00 and will be contested over a shortened race distance of four laps.

While organisers remain optimistic it will go ahead, it does also add that there will be no chance of it being moved to Sunday due to an agreement over road closures that cannot stretch beyond today.

Though unconfirmed, it suggests the Senior TT could be cancelled altogether if it doesn't go ahead this evening as hoped.

The latest setback comes at the end of a fortnight impacted heavily by unseasonably poor weather across the British isles. After qualifying practice was delayed into last weekend, the race programme was subsequently shaken up to accommodate the busy schedule.

Despite the poor weather, organisers were successful in completing nine of the ten races, albeit often with shorter race distances.

Should the Senior TT go ahead, the fight for victory is expected to come down to a battle between Superbike TT winner Davey Todd (8TEN BMW), Michael Dunlop (ROKiT BMW) and Dean Harrison (Honda Racing)