PREMATURE HALT | Bikesportnz

An oil spill called a premature halt on the final practice session at the Isle of Man TT, leaving all of today’s main contenders for the Dainese Superbike TT without valuable track time to make last minute adjustments.

Kiwi rider Bruce Anstey is right up with the leading bunch after this early foray and looks good for another brilliant campaign on the notorious public road circuit.

Second fastest so far in superbikes, the former Wellington rider also finished the day third fastest in the superstock class, behind Michael Rutter and William Dunlop. Anstey is also fourth fastest in supersport, behind William Dunlop, Michael Dunlop and Cameron Donald.

The solo superbike session had started in glorious sunshine at 7.15pm with Honda riders Anstey, John McGuinness and Cameron Donald leading the way and both Tyco Suzuki riders Guy Martin and Conor Cummins also putting down some impressive laps.

Martin (pictured above) posted a standing-start lap of 122.056mph.

The Manxman, who has been nursing a throttle-hand injury sustained at the International North West 200 last month, was in good form.

He said: “It’s hard to explain how the hand feels. It’s not typically painful but just constantly throbs and I don’t want to be taking any painkillers or injections – it’s too dangerous around here to be doing that as you have to know how tight you’re holding on. We’ll just work around it and do the best we can. It’s just a matter of gritting my teeth and getting on with the job.”

Martin completed a second lap on his Supersport machine, but with yellow flags being waved on various parts of the circuit and difficulty with low sun, a tentative lap of 120.814mph was posted.

Unfortunately the oil spill on the Barregarrow section of the circuit forced a premature end to Friday night’s session, curtailing any further laps for all competitors.

The next action on the TT Circuit will be today’s six-lap Dainese Superbike TT which gets underway at 11am. Supersport Qualifying continues after the Sidecar Race 1 [approx 4pm]