Steve Mercer escaped injury during Wednesday evening's practice session when a slower rider moved over on him on the way into Ballaugh Bridge. The Maidstone rider went to overtake the rider on the inside but the other rider was unaware of his presence and moved over leaving Mercer with no room.

Clipping the railings on the left of the bridge, Mercer was crossed up on take off and bailed off on landing, grazing his hand but otherwise escaping unjury free. Aside from a broken footpeg and slightly damaged fairing, the WA Corless/Jackson Racing Honda also escaped damage.

"It was just one of those things," said Mercer. "A quicker rider overtook him and he didn't know that I was there as well and just moved over slightly. I was trying to go up the inside before the bridge but he moved over to where I wanted to be and although I scrubbed off as much speed as I could, I just ran out of room. I clipped the railings which put me out of shape before take off and when I landed I was even more out of shape so just bailed off the thing. I banged my hand a bit but nothing to worry about and luckily the bike was ok too."

The 29-year old has already bettered his best ever lap around the Mountain Course, lapping at 125.379mph on his Superbike on Wednesday evening prior to his spill, which was enough to place him 13th on the leaderboard and posting a 123.221mph lap last night. As well as racing in the Superstock class, he also has a Supertwin (which he's affectionately nicknamed the Donkey) and posted a speed of 109.181mph on Tuesday evening.

"The Superbike's mega, definitely the best bike I've ever ridden around here. I'm really happy with how it's performing and it's ready to race, we've just swapped the engines today as the old one had quite a bit of mileage on it so we've a fresh motor, I'm hopeful of going a bit quicker. The Donkey's going alright and it's quite fun just buzzing around on it. I won't be in contention for a win but if you can finish the race, you'll get a decent result out of it."