2014 isle of Man TT Wednesday Qualifying
Only 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
