2018 Classic TT: Saturday & Monday Qualifying Results at Isle of Man
(Monday’s Classic TT qualifying sessions were canceled due to damp track conditions)
The 2018 Classic TT got underway Saturday with the first qualifying sessions around the 37.73-mile Mountain Course.
All eyes were on John McGuinness, who makes his first return to the track since crashing at the 2017 North West 200. McGuinness won the 2016 Bennetts Senior Classic TT aboard the same Paton.
But he couldn’t catch the man who topped Saturday qualifying – Dean Harrison, who also won the Isle of Man TT Supersport TT and set a new Supersport record aboard his Kawasaki ZX-6R.
Harrison set the top lap time – 122.266mph – during his first lap on the Mountain Course. This was his only full lap on the Silicone Engineering Kawasaki; on lap two of the first session he was forced to retire due to motorcycle issues at Glen Duff.
McGuinness returned with an opening lap of 104.95 mph in Saturday’s second session, but the session was red flagged due to damp track conditions.
Maria Costello (Team Beugger Racing/ Paton) and Olie Linsdell on the Flitwick Motorcycles Enfield also posted 100mph+ laps.
While Harrison was laying down his marker for the week, 2016 Junior MGP Race winner Andrew Dudgeon on a ZXR750 Kawasaki, Michael Rutter (Team Winfield) and Horst Saiger (Greenall Racing Kawasaki) all posted 115+mph laps on their first laps on the Mountain Course since the TT.
Dudgeon’s 118.93 on the second lap was the second fastest of the evening, fractionally ahead of Saiger’s second lap (118.92).
In the concurrent Lightweight Classic TT session rising road racing star Adam McLean posted the two fastest laps – improving his opening lap of 112.328 to 114.740 while Dan Sayle, after problems on his opening lap posted 109.671 on the Steelcote Solutions Yamaha.
Hondas dominated the Junior Classic TT session with the Davies Motorsport pair of Dominic Herbertson and Michael Rutter topping the board – Herbertson with 99.71mph fractionally ahead of Rutter who posted 99.19mph.
Qualifying continues Tuesday for the 2018 Classic TT.
