PBM Kawasaki’s Ian Hutchinson is back to his best and was the first rider to crack a 130mph lap at TT 2015, putting in a 130.266 tonight but 21-time winner John McGuinness was right on his case.
The veteran Honda man managed a 130.030 to go second quickest with Valvoline Padgett’s Honda rider Bruce Anstey, who was fastest yesterday, third on a 129.957mph lap - all three men set them on their second lap.
Hutchinson’s first from a standing start was a 129.793 and good enough for fourth on the sheet while Tyco BMW’s William Dunlop was the fourth fastest Superbike rider overall but behind brother Michael, who put his own MD Racing Superstock S1000RR round in 1’29.659 to net fourth overall.
Guy Martin’s quickest lap of 128.963 was good enough for fifth place in the Superbike class but slower than both Hutchinson and Anstey’s laps from a standing start while Michael Rutter ended the session with a 1’28.529.
In the Superstock class, Michael Dunlop increased his pace second time around to 129.659, which was the fourth fastest lap of the night, with Hutchinson jumping up to second on 128.308 and David Johnson into third on 127.470. Newcomers Derek McGee and Tom McHale improved further too with laps of 119.033 and 117.248 respectively.
At 7.05pm, the second solo session, for Supersport and Lightweight machines, got underway but shortly afterwards it was red flagged due to an incident at Ballagarey involving Roy Richardson who was on his lightweight machine. He was taken by airmed to Nobles hospital where he was reported to have leg injuries. Some Lightweight riders did complete their lap and after a delay the session was restarted with one more solo lap.
Gary Johnson was quickest in the Supersport class with a speed of 124.307 on the Mar-Train Yamaha with Anstey the only other rider over 124mph. William Dunlop was third with Dean Harrison, Ian Hutchinson and Lee Johnston completing the top six.
Ryan Farquhar continued to set the pace in the Lightweight class at 117.432 as he chases his fourth TT win, with Ivan Lintin (116.804) and Jamie Hamilton (115.538) in second and third. James Cowton, Daniel Cooper and Michael Sweeney completed the top six with Rutter getting his first full lap in on the Paton at 111.588. McGee again impressed at 111.254.
As a result of the earlier delay, the sidecars had their session slightly shortened but when it did commence, Dave Molyneux/Ben Binns set the early pace with a lap of 114.291. Ben and Tom Birchall were next over the line at 113.072 but John Holden/Dan Sayle upstaged them all by going quickest at 114.742, five seconds faster than Molyneux.
Tim Reeves/Patrick Farrance slotted into third at 113.720 as Conrad Harrison/Mike Aylott and Ian and Carl Bell also lapped above 110mph. Last year’s quickest newcomers, Alan Founds/Tom Peters, were also going well with their opening speed being 108.163.
Second time around Molyneux stopped at Kerromoar and Reeves and Birchall were practically inseparable at 113.966 and 113.922 respectively. Harrison improved to 111.533 with the Bells not too far behind at 110.933. Gary Bryan/Jamie Winn placed sixth at 109.398 with Founds improving second time around to 108.986.
