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MIKE HAMMONDS TT BLOG PAGES
Saturday 26th Pre TT Classic and TT First Practice.
Another lovely warm day on the Isle
of Man, preparations are continuing at the Grandstand. The finishing
enclosure is still to be completed and the Heron & Brearley Bar is
under construction. This has been moved from its traditional place
at the back of the Grandstand to a new position in Nobles Park
adjacent to the VIP suite. The Hailwood Centre is open for
sandwiches, teas and coffee.
Roads closed for the afternoon
practices and races of the Pre TT Classic at 12:10 hours. The S100
Club are famous for their friendly, slick and efficient way of
running a race meeting. Riding the John Chapman Racing 500cc MV
Agusta Ivan Lintin looked particularly resplendent in his replica
Agostini leathers. All was going well until Colin Croft's 600
Yamaha's engine blew and left an oil slick from the Iron Gate right
the way through to Ballabeg. A fantastic clearing up job was done by
all of the marshals, in hot sweaty conditions. Their hard work was
finished by a road sweeper clearing the residue cement dust away.
 
The afternoon programme was completed
with the 6 lap Singles Race and the 4 lap Sidecar Race.
Mike Hose became the most successful rider in the event when he won the 250cc / 350c Singles Race on his 350cc AJS 7R/ Ri[ley Land Racing machine. This was his 17th victory, eclipsing Bob Heath's 16.Mike was chased home by Mark Herbertson (350cc AJS) and Richard Hawkins (349cc Ducati). The first 250cc single to finish was Keith Shannon (250cc Cotton Telstar) followed by Will Loder (250cc Greeves Silverstone) and Bob Millinship (249cc Ducati Caffrey).
350cc Result:
.1 Mike Hose 350 Ripleyland AJS 7r
83.945mph, 2. Mark Herbertson 350 AJS 83.643mph, 3 Richard Hawkins
349 Ducati 82.329mph
250cc Result:
1. Keith Shannon 250cc Cotton Telstar 77.352mph, 2. Will Loder 250c Greeves Silverstone 76.259mph, 3. Bob Millinship 249cc Ducati Caffrey 73.625mph 
The days racing was brought to a
close with the first of two sidecar races. Fastest in Practice on
Friday evening, Rod Bellas and Danny Quirk's 1200cc B.L.R. Imp
struggled to get off the start line and they retired on the second
lap. This left the way open for Eddy Wright and Keiran Clarke 1070cc
Windle BMW to have a start to finish victory from Keith Walters and
Alun Thomas 1000cc Windle Honda. Third place was a closely fought
battle until Tony Thirkle and Trevor Johnson broke the tail of
Patrick Geffray and Andy Haynes who finished fourth. Eleven of the
fifteen starters completed the race.
Sidecar Result:
1. Eddy Wright / Keiran Clarke 1070cc
Windle BMW 84.120, 2. Keith Walters / Alun Thomas 1000cc Windle
Honda 83.822, 3. Tony Thirkle / Trevor Johnson 1070cc MRE BMW
The Island continues to fill up and
true to form transort delays were announced. The late afternoon
EasyJet flight from Bristol was delayed by 45 minutes and the
Manannan evening crossing from Liverpool was delayed an hour due to
a technical fault.
First TT Practice:
Chris Kinley and Chris Palmer set the
scene for the first evening practice on Radio TT. For those a little
longer in the tooth it was more like a repeat episode of the Likely
Lads where Bob and Terry were trying to avoid the match score until
they could watch it much later on Match of the Day. Chris Kinley
wanting to avoid the Champions League score at all costs.
Practice got underway, in good
conditions, just after 18:30, fifteen minutes late due to the
repositioning of Marshals. Richard 'Milky' Quayle led away the three
solo newcomers, Adan Lyon, David Jackson and Davy Todd for their
escorted lap. The sidecar newcomers followed shortly after led by
John Holden, Tim Reeves and Tony Baker.
The Supersport and Lightweight
practice followed and the ground vibrated from the earth shattering
noise of Michael Rutter's 650cc Paton. Michael Dunlop unofficially
broke the Lightweight lap record with a late evening lap of
18minutes 43.708 seconds 120.87mph, beating Ivan Lintin by 1.998
seconds. Dean Harrison set the fastest lap of the night, on his
Supersport Silcone Engineering Kawasaki, with a speed of 125.80mph.
Lightweight Practice times:
1. Michael Dunlop 650cc mphPaton / MD
Racing 120.87mph, 2. Ivan Lintin 650cc Kawasaki / Dafabet Devitt
Racing 120.66mph, 3 Derek Mcgee 650cc Kawasaki IEG/KMRKawasaki
117.57.
Supersport Practice Times:
1. Dean Harrison 600cc
Kawasaki/Silicone Racing, 2. Michael Dunlop 600cc Honda/MD Racing
125.74mph, 3. Connor Cummins 600cc Honda/ Padgettsmotorcycles.com
125.15mph
Mike Hammonds
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