2014 isle of Man TT Wednesday QualifyingOnly one lap was completed in Wednesday’s third qualifying session of the 2014 Isle of Man TT. The reason? Rain and a red flag due to an incident at Barregarrow.
The red flag occurred as riders got away on the second lap. Newcomer Laruent Hoffman crashed at the top of Barregarrow. He was flown to Nobles Hospital, where he was examined for leg injuries and is undergoing further assessment.And when the 37.73-mile Snaefell Mountain Course circuit was finally cleared for qualifying, heavy rain began falling. This caused the Clerk of the Course to cancel any further qualifying.When Wednesday began under cloudy and spotty rain conditions, some of the top contenders opted to pilot their 1000cc super bikes for Dainese TT qualifying, but others decided to ride their Supersport machines.Hawk Racing BMW’s Michael Dunlop and Milwaukee Yamaha’s Ian Hutchinson were the first off aboard their perspective superbikes, followed by by TYCO Suzuki’s Guy Martin and Quattro Kawasaki’s James Hillier, the latter two also on superbikes.Also piloting super bikes were TYCO Suzuki’s William Dunlop, Lincs Honda’s Gary Johnson and Bathams Prize BMW’s Michael Rutter.As for the others – RAF Honda’s Conor Cummins, Valvoline Honda’s Bruce Anstey, RigDeluge Honda’s Keith Amor and Cookstown Honda’s Dan Keen – they all piloted their perspective 600cc machines in the Supersport and Superstock classes.Leading the way in the Superbike class was BMW’s Michael Dunlop, who posted a fastest lap of 128.690 – the quickest of the day. This was just shy of his best lap on Tuesday. Following was Martin, who posted a quickest lapp of 128.052.Third fastest was William Dunlop, who posted a 127.911 mph. He was followed Rutter, Harrison, SMT Honda’s Dan Stewart, and Hutchinson the only other riders to break the 125mph marker.The newcomers again posted good laps with six of them over the 110mph barrier – Peter Hickman (117.895), Martin Jessopp (115.607), Vick de Cooremeter (114.410), Phil Crowe (113.910), Alan Bonner (112.447) and Danny Webb (112.203), with Crowe and Webb both posting personal bests, the IOM TT reports.Cummins was the quickest Superstock machine at 126.268mph with Anstey posting a speed of 123.127mph to top the Supersport time sheets but with rain falling, particularly from Ramsey onwards, John McGuinness completed a lap at 122.387mph and James Hillier at 121.527mph on their Superbikes, comfortably down on their speeds earlier in the week, the IOM TT Reports.Qualifying continues Thursday; stay clicked to Ultimate MotorCycling for the results.Photography by Wayne Freestone
Hello everyone and welcome once again to Ultimate Motorcycling’s weekly Podcast—Motos and Friends.
My name is Arthur Coldwells.
This week’s Podcast is brought to you by Yamaha motorcycles. Discover how the YZF-R7 provides the perfect balance of rider comfort and true supersport performance by checking it out at YamahaMotorsports.com, or see it for yourself at your local dealer.
This week’s episode features Senior Editor Nic de Sena’s impressions of the beautiful new Harley-Davidson Low Rider ST that is loosely based around the original FXRT Sport Glide from the 1980s. Hailing from The Golden State, these cult-status performance machines became known as West Coast style, with sportier suspension, increased horsepower, and niceties including creature comforts such as a tidy fairing and sporty luggage.
In past episodes you might have heard us mention my best friend, Daniel Schoenewald, and in the second segment I chat with him about some of the really special machines in his 170 or so—and growing—motorcycle collection. He’s always said to me that he doesn’t consider himself the owner, merely the curator of the motorcycles for the next generation.
Yet Daniel is not just a collector, but I can attest a really skilled rider. His bikes are not trailer queens, they’re ridden, and they’re ridden pretty hard. Actually, we have had many, many memorable rides on pretty much all of the machines in the collection at one time or another.
From all of us here at Ultimate Motorcycling, we hope you enjoy this episode!
